Berlin film fest to give honorary award to Tilda Swinton

The Berlin Film Festival will fete Scottish actress Tilda Swinton with a Lifetime Achievement award next year. The award will be presented at the Opening Ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on February 13, 2025.

Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle said that the decision to award Swinton the Honorary Golden Bear prize was made to recognize her "breathtaking" range and status as "one of our modern filmmaking idols."

"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 Berlinale, which runs from February 13 to 23, is one of Europe's top film festivals, along with Cannes and Venice.

The 2025 edition of the festival will open with the premiere of "Das Licht" ("The Light") by German director Tom Tykwer.

In the Berlinale statement, Swinton said, "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 internationally 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 throughout 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.