The 26th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival was held between October 16 and 23 in Newport Beach, California. The event was established in 1999 and has become the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California. This year's event honored a member of The Walking Dead cast featured in season 4.
BAFTA award-winning actress Kerry Condon received the Artist of Distinction Award at the 2025 festival. She was honored for her impressive career as an actress, for which she has received global praise. Most recently, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin. Jenny Slate (Dying for Sex) was also awarded the Artist of Distinction at the 2025 festival.
Condon was in good company at the festival, which also honored Brendan Fraser, Diane Lane, and Mark Hamill with the Icon Award. Several other actors were also honored, including Tessa Thompson (Hedda), who received the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award, and Noah Schnapp (Stranger Things), who received the Spotlight Award. The Casting Visionary Award was given to Francine Maisler (Sinners, Deliver Me from Nowhere), and the Arts Champion Award was presented to journalist and screenwriter Steven Gaydos.
Condon is an Irish actress who was the youngest to portray Ophelia in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet (2001-2002). A frequent collaborator with McDonagh, she has appeared in two of his plays, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) and The Cripple of Inishmaan (2009). She has also starred in two of his films, the above-mentioned The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).
She is also known for her voice work as F.R.I.D.A.Y., Iron Man's replacement for J.A.R.V.I.S. in several Marvel Studios films. Her other film credits include Angela's Ashes, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, Night Swim, and Dreamland.
She appeared in season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead as Clara, a woman encountered by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). When she first appeared, her appearance led many viewers to believe she was a walker who had somehow retained the ability to speak. But he would soon discover she was a disturbed woman who saved her husband's reanimated head because she couldn't bear to be parted from him. She eventually stabs herself and begs Rick to put her out of her misery. Her reanimated form can be in several other episodes.
She received several Primetime Emmy Awards for her role in HBO's Rome and has also appeared in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Better Call Saul, Ray Donovan, Women on the Verge, and Luck.
Earlier in 2025, Condon starred in the sports drama F1, which also starred Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Tobias Menzies, and Javier Bardem. She will star alongside Joel Egerton and Felicity Jones in the upcoming drama Train Dreams, which will be released on Netflix on November 21.
Next, she will star alongside Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott in Anthony Maras' D-Day movie, Pressure. The film is based on David Haig's play, and the film was co-written by Maras and Haig. Fraser portrays Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Scott plays Royal Air Force meteorologist James Stagg, in a story set in the final days before the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944.