Sam Mendes Receives Knighthood in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s Honors List

That’s “Sir Sam,” if you please.

Director Sam Mendes, whose World War I film “1917” is causing serious Oscar buzz, is being awarded a knighthood in the latest round of honors handed out by Queen Elizabeth II. Mendes is being recognized for “services to drama” in the annual New Year’s Honors List.

The knighthood means that Mendes should formally be addressed as “Sir Sam,” following the feudal protocol that still remains part of British pomp and pageantry.

Mendes won an Academy Award in 2000 for his direction of “American Beauty.” More recently, he helmed the two recent James Bond outings “Skyfall” and “Spectre,” both of which were blockbusters at the global box office.

His new film, “1917,” was inspired by stories told him of the Great War by his grandfather. In a piece of bravura filmmaking, the movie appears to follow its protagonists, two young soldiers in the trenches, in one continuous take. The film stars Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay.

Mendes is also an accomplished theater director. “The Lehman Trilogy” and “The Ferryman” both transferred from London to New York.

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Another Oscar winner receiving a knighthood in the New Year’s Honors List, which was unveiled Friday, is playwright Christopher Hampton, best known for his theatrical adaptation of the novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” He also adapted it into the movie “Dangerous Liaisons,” starring Glenn Close, which garnered Hampton the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay in 1989. He was also nominated for best adapted screenplay in 2008 for “Atonement,” based on the novel by Ian McEwan.

Singer Olivia Newton-John was awarded a damehood, the equivalent of a knighthood for women, for her services to charity. The “Grease” star has been active in campaigning for a cure for breast cancer.

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