(Lyon) French actress and producer Isabelle Huppert, 71, will receive the Lumière Prize during the 16th edition of the Lyon International Cinema Festival, which will take place from October 12 to 20, its organizers announced Thursday.
“Isabelle Huppert is one of the most famous and celebrated French actresses in the world,” they salute in a press release. “His career embraces an immense part of the history of contemporary cinema.”
Claude Chabrol’s favorite actress, who directed her seven times, at the age of 25, Isabelle Huppert won the Best Actress Prize at Cannes in 1978 for her role in his film Violette Nozière, her first collaboration with the French director.
With two other of their films, A Women’s Affair (1988) and The 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 her taste for unique experiences led her to the United States, where she starred in the legendary Heaven’s Door (1980) by Michael Cimino, but also more recently to the Philippines and South Korea where she performs under the direction of Brillante Mendoza and Hong Sang-soo,” the festival team further recalls.
Having won two Césars for Best Actress, for La Cérémonie and Elle by Paul Verhoeven (2017), this last film also earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
With this Lumière Prize, she succeeds German director Wim Wenders, winner of 2023. Two other actresses have received it: Jane Fonda in 2018 and Catherine Deneuve in 2016.
“It’s a wonderful award, as is its festival. And it’s a prize named after the inventors of cinema! Receiving it is a joy and a pride,” the actress told the festival organizers.
Created by Thierry Frémaux, Director General of the Lumière Institute and General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, this award celebrates “a cinema personality for their entire body of work and the link they maintain 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.