Richard Gere is to receive the Special Award to an Actor at the 27th edition of EnergaCamerimage, in Torun, Poland (Nov. 9-16), an event that draws the world’s leading cinematographers.
In a statement, the festival described Gere as “a charismatic and versatile performer of great charm and magnetic presence,” referencing some of the movies that helped make him a star such as Garry Marshall’s “Pretty Woman,” Taylor Hackford’s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven.”
The festival described his career as being “full of brave choices and unexpected projects,” citing Paul Schrader’s “American Gigolo,” in which he played a male escort entangled in a murder investigation.
It also underscored the diversity of roles “in which he could truly shine through immersing himself in his characters.” These included an ambitious trumpeter working his way up in 1930s Harlem in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club,” a powerful political consultant developing a conscience in Sidney Lumet’s “Power,” and a distinguished cop with too many secrets to hide in Mike Figgis’s “Internal Affairs.”
The festival also lauded Gere for his activism, campaigning for ecological issues, AIDS awareness, the rights of tribal peoples, and ending political violence, and his willingness to travel to such poverty-stricken places as refugee camps in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.