LOS ANGELES — Viola Davis became one of Hollywood's most revered actors through an array of powerful roles, from “Fences” to “The Woman King,” and now her decorated career has earned her one of the Golden Globes' highest honors.

Davis will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 82nd annual awards ceremony on Jan 5, the Golden Globes announced Wednesday morning. The actor has won praise for a string of compelling characters in films such as “The Help,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Doubt,” while captivating TV audiences through the legal thriller drama “How to Get Away with Murder.”

Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne called Davis a “luminary," and expressed admiration for the actor’s dedication to her craft and impact on the industry.

"Viola’s courage in portraying complex, powerful characters has broken barriers and paved new paths, making her an emblem of excellence and an ideal recipient of this prestigious award,” Hoehne said.

The DeMille Award has been bestowed to 69 of Hollywood's greatest talents. Past recipients include Tom Hanks, Jeff Bridges, Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand and Sidney Poitier.

Nominations for the upcoming Globes show are scheduled to be announced Dec. 9.

Davis, 59, has two Tonys, most recently for “Fences” in 2010, she won an Emmy in 2015 for “How to Get Away with Murder,” and an Oscar and Golden Globe in 2016 for the film version of “Fences.” She achieved EGOT status after winning a Grammy last year for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording for her memoir “Finding Me.”

In 2022, Davis was honored with the Public Counsel’s William O Douglas Award for her commitment to social justice causes. She has partnered with multiple programs to eradicate childhood hunger in the United States.

Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, founded a production company, JuVee Productions, which develops and produces independent films, theater, television and digital content. Earlier this year, the company filmed an action thriller for Amazon Studios in Cape Town and reportedly plans to return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee's journey to the U.S.

Davis and the 2025 Carol Burnett Award winner, honoring television achievements, will be praised at a gala dinner Jan. 3 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. For the first time, the Globes will host a separate event dedicated to both awards.

Davis will be recognized during the awards ceremony broadcast.

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Liam Payne's One Direction bandmates among the mourners at singer's funeral

LONDON — The former members of One Direction reunited Wednesday for the funeral of bandmate Liam Payne.

Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson joined friends and family at the service for 31-year-old Payne, who died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last month.

A horse-drawn carriage carried the coffin to St. Mary’s Church in Amersham, 25 miles northwest of London. Undertakers carried the dark blue casket with silver handles, topped with white roses, into the 800-year-old church for the private service.

The funeral location was not made public in advance to prevent a large crowd from gathering, though dozens of local people and fans still gathered nearby.

“Growing up, I was a massive fan of One Direction, so I almost felt like a little piece of the child in me was gone," said 20-year-old Tara Lloyd, who works at the nearby Amersham Hospital.

The crowd fell silent when Payne’s parents, Geoff and Karen, emerged from a car to stand beside the carriage, which was topped with floral tributes reading “Son” and “Daddy.” Payne had a 7-year-old son, Bear, with the singer Cheryl Tweedy.

Among the mourners was Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, actor and presenter James Corden, former soccer player Robbie Keane and music mogul Simon Cowell who put One Direction together.

After the service, Cowell embraced Payne’s parents outside the church, before the late singer's coffin was driven away in a black hearse.

One Direction formed in 2010 after the five teenagers auditioned for “The X-Factor” as solo acts and were brought together by Cowell, a judge on the show. With their loyal fan base of “Directioners” they became one of the most successful boy bands of all time.

After the group split in 2016, Payne embarked on a solo career which failed to match the success of One Direction. He was also open about struggling with his mental health and alcohol amid the pressures of fame.

Prosecutors in Argentina said that Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of his room at the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital on Oct. 16. They have charged three people over his death, with “abandonment of a person followed by death” and “supplying and facilitating the use of narcotics.”

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Alec Baldwin film ‘Rust’ has world premiere with dedication to cinematographer killed on set

TORUN, Poland — Alec Baldwin’s Western “Rust” had its world premiere Wednesday at a film festival in Poland with a dedication to cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was fatally shot in an accident on the set three years ago.

Organizers called for a minute of silence before showing the film, which opened to a full house at the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage in the city of Torun, and received applause at the end.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal outside Santa Fe, N.M., in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.

Souza introduced the film at the festival, a popular industry event dedicated to cinematography. He told the audience that initially after the accident he could not have imagined continuing with the production, or even working on a movie set or writing again.

“It just hurt too much,” he said.

But Hutchins' husband, Matthew, wanted the film to be finished, and came on as an executive producer.

“It was important to him that the people who knew and loved Halyna get to see her final work," Souza said. The mission became “to preserve every single frame that I could of hers, and to honor her final work.”

“Rust” — which includes scene after scene of shootouts — is the story of a 13-year-old boy who is sentenced to be hanged after he fatally shoots a rancher by accident. He goes on the run with his estranged grandfather, played by Baldwin.

Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who finished the project, said Hutchins established the look and feel of the film, and filmed more than half of it. She studied Hutchins' notes to honor her vision.

Hutchins, 42, was a Ukrainian cinematographer on the rise and a mother of a young son. She grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked on documentary films in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a promising movie-making career.

Ahead of the premiere, Hutchins’ mother, who is suing Baldwin and the production, said she was refusing to attend and that she viewed the film as an attempt by Baldwin to “unjustly profit” from her daughter’s death. Baldwin was also not present.

“It was always my hope to meet my daughter in Poland to watch her work come alive on screen," said Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, in a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred. “Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologize to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death."

Melina Spadone, a representative for Rust Movie Productions, issued a statement saying: “Gloria Allred’s misrepresentation of both the Camerimage festival and any profit motivation is disappointing. The decision to complete ‘Rust’ was made with the full support of Halyna’s family."

"The Camerimage festival celebrates the artistry of cinematographers; it is not a festival for buyers. None of the producers of Rust stand to benefit financially from the film. The suggestion that those involved in completing Halyna Hutchins’ film were motivated by profit is disrespectful to those who worked tirelessly to honor her legacy.”

Filmmaker Rachel Mason, a friend of Hutchins who was tapped by Matthew Hutchins to make a documentary about his late wife, told the audience that Solovey told her that she wanted the film to be completed because of how important the project was to her daughter.

Mason also described all those who continued to work on the film after the tragedy on set as “heroic.”

“You could just feel and see the trauma that they had gone through,” she said.

“Halyna didn’t get the chance to do the biggest films that she was expected to do, that we all knew she would. ‘Rust’ was that film. ‘Rust’ was going to change her life but instead it took her life. And the people that feel the pain of that most are the people that made the film,” Mason said. “I really hope the world can understand that it was a courageous act to complete this film.”

A New Mexico judge dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in the fatal shooting. The case was thrown out halfway through trial on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.

The film armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, received the maximum sentence of 18 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter. A judge found that her recklessness amounted to a serious violent offense. Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun-safety protocols.

By Associated Press