Acclaimed US filmmaker Martin Scorsese, whose latest movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” is one of the most buzzed-about pics of this awards season, will receive the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on February 20.
The festival’s directors, Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, said Scorsese is “an unmatched role model” for “anyone who considers cinema as the art of shaping a story in such a way that is both completely personal and universal.
“His films have accompanied our history as spectators and human beings, his characters have lived and grown within us, his view of history and mankind has helped us to understand and question who we are and where we come from,” Chatrian and Rissenbeek added.
The duo, who will step down after the upcoming Berlinale edition when their mandate ends, described “Killers of the Flower Moon” as one of Scorsese’s greatest achievements.
Scorsese has a long history with the festival, including notably providing the 2008 Rolling Stones concert movie “Shine a Light”, which played as the event’s opening title.
His iconic “Raging Bull” played in Berlin out of competition. “Cape Fear” competed in 1992. “Gangs of New York” played twice: out of competition in 2003 and in the 2010 retrospective section. “Shutter Island” also played out of competition in 2010. Another presentation at the Berlinale was the work in progress “Untitled New York Review of Books Documentary” in 2014, which was later launched by HBO as “The 50 Year Argument.”
Scorsese’s movie restoration and distribution initiative, The Film Foundation has also provided restored versions of several titles for the Berlinale Classics section.
The acclaimed director is known to be among the signatories to an ultimately unsuccessful petition to keep Chratrian in his present position.
The 2024 edition of the Berlinale is already shaping up to be a strong one for North American movies. The partial selection for the Berlinale Special section already includes Johan Renck’s Netflix sci-fi drama “Spaceman”, starring Adam Sandler; David and Nathan Zellner’s “Sasquatch Sunset” starring Jesse Eisenberg, which will world premiere at Sundance; and Atom Egoyan’s “Seven Veils” starring Amanda Seyfried which premiered in Toronto without stars on the red carpet.
Active since 1962, Scorsese has a vast collection of awards. These include a Palme d’Or at Cannes for “Taxi Driver,” the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 2012.
His movies have received a total of 91 Oscar nominations and 20 Oscar wins. These included the 2006 movie “The Departed”, which in February 2007 earned Scorsese both the Best Picture award and the Best Director statuette.
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