Kate Winslet snaps selfies with fans as she is award the Golden Icon Award during the Zurich Film Festival

By William On Oct 7, 2024

Kate Winslet cut a stylish figure in a black suit as she accepted the Golden Icon Award at the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland on Monday.

The Oscar-winning actress, 49, looked cheerful as she stopped to pose for selfies with fans outside the theater.

The Titanic star looked stunning in the black blazer and trousers which she teamed with a matching blouse and sky-high heels.

Kate left her long blonde locks loose in neat curls and completed her outfit with a simple gold pendant necklace.

The British actress received the festival’s Golden Icon Award prior to the screening of her new film Lee.

Kate Winslet cut a stylish figure in a black suit as she accepted the Golden Icon Award at the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland on Monday

The Oscar-winning actress, 49, looked cheerful as she stopped to pose for selfies with fans outside the theater

She said in a statement: “Thank you to the Zurich Film Festival for this wonderful honor and for recognizing Lee, a film that has truly been a labor of love for me and of which I am immensely proud.

“I am so grateful to the Zurich Film Festival for creating this moment to celebrate our film, and everyone who has been part of this epic journey. Lee has been and will continue to be a pride and joy to me.”

In Lee, Kate Lee portrays Miller, a correspondent for British Vogue during World War II who became one of the most important war photographers of the 20th century.

Starring Kate as Miller in the biopic, the new release also stars Josh O’Connor, Marion Cotillard and Succession star Alexander Skarsgard.

Kate recently claimed she was told to hide her “belly rolls” during filming, a comment she found “absolutely bizarre” because Miller’s body “was supposed to be soft.”

She told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: ‘My job was to be like Lee. She wasn’t lifting weights or doing Pilates, she wasn’t eating cheese, bread or drinking wine or making much of it, so of course her body would be soft.

“But I think we’re so used to it that maybe we don’t necessarily see that and enjoy it. Strangely enough, the instinct is to see it and criticize it or comment on it in some way.

“It’s interesting how many people like labels for women. And they really liked them in Lee’s day, and, annoyingly, they still do – we put these labels on women that we just don’t have for men. I think it’s absolutely bizarre.’

The Titanic star looked stunning in the black blazer and trousers which she teamed with a matching blouse and sky-high heels

Kate left her long blonde locks loose in neat curls and completed her outfit with a simple gold pendant necklace

The British actress received the festival’s Golden Icon Award prior to the screening of her new film Lee

In Lee, Kate portrays Lee Miller, a correspondent for British Vogue during World War II who became one of the most important war photographers of the 20th century.

Kate said she thinks women should have conversations about the labels given to women depending on their body shape and “celebrate having real shape and being soft.”

She added: “Life is too short, you know that? I don’t want to look back and say, “Why was I worried about that?” And so, guess what? I don’t worry anymore. I don’t care.

‘I’m just going to live my life, enjoy it, carry on. You only have one chance: make the most of it.’

The blockbuster explores Miller’s journey from fashion model to acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.

Miller’s work took her throughout Europe, where she worked for the Allied forces and collaborated with American photographer David E. Scherman, a correspondent for Life magazine.

Her collection includes incredible photographs she took to document the end of the war, traveling to France less than a month after D-Day, and to document the siege of the heavily fortified town of St. Malo.

She also witnessed the liberation of Paris, the Battle of Alsace and the horrors of the first soldiers arriving at the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.

She continued, “I am so grateful to the Zurich Film Festival for creating this moment to celebrate our film, and everyone who has been part of this epic journey. Lee has been and will continue to be a pride and joy to me.”

And during a visit to Germany, David Scherman took a photo of Miller lying in the bathtub of Adolf Hitler’s Munich apartment, with the shower hose looped in the middle behind her head, resembling a noose.

The images became one of the most iconic of their partnership and showcased her infamous modeling skills.

She was one of only two female combat photographers during World War II and also one of the few female correspondents to venture into the liberated concentration camps.

WHO WAS PHOTO JOURNALIST LEE MILLER?

In addition to appearing in American Vogue, Lee Miller witnessed the horrors of Nazi Germany and became one of the most important photographers to document the 20th century.

Her talents were first put on full display in American Vogue in the 1920s, when she became one of the country’s most sought-after models.

Before World War II, she worked as a 1920s cover girl and collaborated with surrealist artists in Europe before embarking on a career in photojournalism.

In 1929, when her modeling career became controversial when her image was used in an advertisement for sanitary napkins, Miller went to Paris with the intention of apprenticing with the surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray.

She honed her skills under the guidance of the great photographers of her time, including Man Ray. She became her lover in the early 1930s.

She felt that photography was ‘particularly suitable for women as a profession, because it seems to me that women are faster and more flexible than men. And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities faster than men.”

After living in Cairo for a while, she returned to Paris, where she met British surrealist painter and curator Roland Penrose, who would later teach the use of camouflage in World War II.

Miller was living with Penrose in Hampstead, North London when the bombing of the city began, and decided to start a new career in photojournalism as the official war photographer for Vogue, where he documented the Blitz.

Her work would later take her throughout Europe, where she worked for the Allied forces and collaborated with American photographer David E. Scherman, a correspondent for Life magazine.

She was one of only two female combat photographers during World War II and also one of the few female correspondents to venture into the liberated concentration camps.

She also witnessed the liberation of Paris, the Battle of Alsace and the horrors of the first soldiers arriving at the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.

The images became one of the most iconic of their partnership and showcased her infamous modeling skills.

It is believed that Miller kept the address of Hitler’s apartment in her pocket for “years”, hoping to be one of the first to arrive during the invasion. After taking the bathtub photo, Miller took a bath in the tub and slept in Hitler’s bed.

After returning to Britain, Miller buried the record of her remarkable life in boxes in the attic of her Sussex home – and they were only found after her death by her son, who was able to record her exploits, according to the BBC.

She spent the later years of her life in England and died there in 1977, aged 70.