Hawkins appeared in two Woody Allen films, "Cassandra's Dream" (2007) and "Blue Jasmine" (2013); for the latter, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to play the lead role in "Made in Dagenham" (2010), "Paddington" (2014), "Maudie" (2016), and "Paddington 2" (2017), and appeared in "Godzilla" (2014) and "" (2019). For starring as a mute cleaning woman in the romantic fantasy film "The Shape of Water" (2017), Hawkins earned acclaim and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.