French actress and producer Isabelle Huppert, 71, will receive the Lumière prize during the 16th edition of the Lyon International Film Festival, which will take place from October 12 to 20, its organizers announced on Thursday.
“Isabelle Huppert is one of the most famous and celebrated French actresses in the world,” they said in a statement. “Her career embraces an immense part of the history of contemporary cinema.”
A favorite actress of Claude Chabrol, who directed her seven times, Isabelle Huppert won the Best Actress Award at Cannes in 1978 at the age of 25 for her role in his film Violette Nozièrefirst collaboration with the French director.
Along with two other of their films, A women’s affair (1988) et Ceremony (1995), she was crowned in Venice.
His second acting prize at Cannes was for The Pianist, by Michael Haneke (2001). In 2009, she was president of the jury there.
“Capable of going from a sophisticated comedy to a demanding auteur film”, the actress has filmed with many big names in French and European cinema: Jean-Luc Godard, Claire Denis, Bertrand Tavernier, Diane Kurys, Maurice Pialat, Catherine Breillat, François Ozon, André Téchiné, Andrzej Wajda…
“Her insatiable curiosity and taste for unique experiences led her to the United States, where she starred in the legendary Heaven’s Gate (1980) by Michael Cimino, but also more recently in the Philippines or South Korea where she played under the direction of Brillante Mendoza and Hong Sang-soo,” recalls the festival team.
Double César winner for Best Actress, for Ceremony et Elle by Paul Verhoeven (2017), this latest film also earned him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
With this Lumière prize, she succeeds German director Wim Wenders, winner in 2023. Two other actresses have received it: Jane Fonda in 2018 and Catherine Deneuve in 2016.
“It’s a magnificent prize, just like its festival. And it’s a prize that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it is a joy and a pride,” the actress told the festival organizers.
Created by Thierry Frémaux, general director of the Lumière Institute and general delegate of the Cannes festival, this award celebrates “a cinema personality for all of her work and the link she maintains with the history of cinema”.
Since its creation in 2009, the Lumière Festival has become one of the major festivals of international cinema.
The first to receive it was the American actor and director Clint Eastwood, now 94 years old.
The award will be presented on October 18.
