Tilda Swinton will be celebrated by the Berlin Film festival with its Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
“The range of Tilda Swinton’s work is breathtaking,” said the festival’s artistic director Tricia Tuttle in a statement. “To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the world through her work,” Tuttle added.
“Tilda 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,” she went on to note.
The award will be presented to Swinton during the fest’s opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on Feb. 13, 2025.
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“The Berlinale is the first film festival I ever went to, in 1986 with Derek Jarman and the first film I made, his “Caravaggio,” said 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,” she added. “To be honored 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.”
Swinton has had close ties to the Berlinale for many years. She’s starred in 26 films in the festival’s selection, ranging from “Caravaggio,” which won the Belin Silver Bear in 1986, to “The Beach” (2000); “Derek” (2008); “Julia” (2008); “The Garden” (1991) and “Last and First Men” (2020).
Swinton also presided over the Berlinale’s main jury in 2009.
Swinton more recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” (2023) – marking their fifth collaboration – and in George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” (2022); David Fincher’s “The Killer” (2023); Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End” (2024) and “The Room Next Door” (2024), which is her second collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar. Swinton just finished shooting “The Ballad of a Small Player” with Edward Berger for Netflix.
The upcoming 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival will run Feb. 13-23, 2025.