National Film Awards UK nominees or films must be based in the country of origin except the Best Foreign Film category. 2016, the mobile network O2 (UK) sponsored the awards During the ceremony, National Film Awards UK pauses to pay tribute to those in the industry who died over the previous twelve months, with a montage of images accompanied by music. In 2016 the legendary late actor Alan Rickman was honored. In 2015 Dame Judi Dench was voted by academy members to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award whilst the 2016 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award was Dame Helen Mirren David Jason and Nicholas
Judi Dench Honour (CH) in the 2005 Birthday Honours. In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI). In a biography by John Miller it was noted that in the late 1990s Dench was the patron of over 180 charities, many of which were related either to the theatre or to medical causes, for example York Against Cancer. Dench is a patron of the Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden, The Archway Theatre, Horley, Surrey and OnePlusOne Marriage and Partnership Research, London. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2006, taking over from Sir