British actress Tilda Swinton poses during the photocall for the premiere of the Spanish film “La Habitacion de al Lado” (“The Room Next Door”) at the Pathe Palace cinema in Paris on December 16, 2024. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP)
Berlin’s international film festival will next year present Scottish actress Tilda Swinton with a lifetime achievement award, organizers said Friday.
The decision to give Swinton the Honorary Golden Bear prize was taken in recognition of her “breathtaking” range and status as “one of our modern filmmaking idols,” Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle said in a statement.
“To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humor, and style, and she expands our ideas of the world through her work,” Tuttle said.
The award will be presented at the festival’s opening ceremony in the German capital on February 13.
The Berlinale, running February 13–23, ranks along with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top film festivals.
The 2025 edition of the festival will open with the premiere of “Das Licht” (“The Light”) by German director Tom Tykwer.
Swinton said in the statement from the Berlinale that “to be honored in this way by this particular festival is deeply touching for me.”
She recalled that the Berlinale was “the first film festival I ever went to, in 1986 with Derek Jarman and the first film I made, his Caravaggio.”.
“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,” she said.
Born in London in 1960, Swinton’s early career was marked by appearances in European arthouse movies, appearing in several works directed by the late British filmmaker Derek Jarman.
She rose to international prominence in 1992 when she starred in Sally Potter’s Oscar-nominated “Orlando.”
Swinton won an Oscar in 2007 for her role in “Michael Clayton” and has starred in no fewer than 26 films at the Berlinale over the course of her long and illustrious career.
This year Swinton starred in the first feature film in English by acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, “The Room Next Door.”
A meditation on death and friendship set in New England, Swinton plays a war correspondent suffering from terminal cancer.
Last year’s festival awarded the Honorary Golden Bear to US director Martin Scorsese, with the 2023 edition giving the prize to fellow Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg.