The award-winning actress will be honoured for her career with this lifetime achievement award. New Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle has said Tilda Swinton brings “humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style” to cinema.
The Berlin Film Festival has announced that this year’s 75th edition will honour Scottish actress Tilda Swinton with the Honorary Golden Bear for her lifetime achievement.
Swinton is known for her wide-ranging and genre-blending filmography, which includes titles like Sally Potter’s Orlando, Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer, Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash and Suspiria, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Parts 1 and 2, five Wes Anderson films including The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, which won the Golden Lion in Venice this year.
The Academy Award-winning performer previously served as the President of the International Jury in 2009 and starred in 26 films in the festival programme – including Caravaggio, which won the Silver Bear at the 1986 Berlinale.
“The Berlinale is the first film festival I ever went to, in 1986 with Derek Jarman and the first film I made, his Caravaggio,” shares Swinton. “It was my portal into the world in which I have made my life’s work – the world of international filmmaking – and I have never forgotten the debt I owe it. To be honoured in this way by this particular festival is deeply touching for me: it will be my privilege and pleasure to celebrate, once more next February, the seedbed that is this wide-eyed and reliably wonderful gathering.”
“The range of Tilda Swinton’s work is breathtaking,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle, who is about to helm her first Berlinale in February. “To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the world through her work.”
Tuttle continues by saying that Swinton is “one of our modern filmmaking idols, and has also long been part of the Berlinale family. We are delighted to be able to present her with this Honorary Golden Bear.”
The award will be presented at the Opening Ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on 13 February 2025.
The 75th edition of the Berlinale runs from 13-23 February 2025, with the US director Todd Haynes serving as Competition Jury President.
Additional sources • Berlin Film Festival
