This year, FILMFEST MÜNCHEN aka Munich Film Festival honors Georgian writer-director Otar Iosseliani and American acting icon John Malkovich with the CineMerit Award.
Every year, FILMFEST MÜNCHEN presents the CineMerit Award, sponsored by German carmaker Audi, to outstanding personalities in the international film community for extraordinary contributions to motion pictures as an art form.
Festival Director Andreas Ströhl: “Otar Iosseliani is the unsurpassed master of the melancholy comedy, and John Malkovich has always been in a class of his own. His unconventional performances make every film he’s in worth seeing. We’re very proud that they are both coming to Munich for the festival.”
Otar Iosseliani, born in Tbilisi in 1934, is one of the grandseigneurs of poetic cinema. The internationally acclaimed filmmaker began making films in Georgia in the ’60s and ’70s. Unwilling to put up with Soviet censorship, he emigrated to France in 1982. His films are characterized by a unique visual and narrative style, an ironic world view and an all-embracing love of humanity despite people’s shortcomings.
Otar Iosseliani will receive his CineMerit Award at the festival’s Award Ceremony on July 1st at 6 pm. The keynote speaker is the Berlin-based Georgian director Dito Tsintsadze. Following the ceremony, Iosseliani’s latest film will be screened: CHANTRAPAS (France, 2010) is about a Georgian filmmaker who leaves his homeland in search of a better life – a film with obvious autobiographical content. FILMFEST MÜNCHEN will be screening six of this exceptional director’s films in all.
John Malkovich is one of the greatest actors of his generation but he is also a producer, writer and director. He has played every imaginable character in the course of his career. Malkovich, the man with the endearing malicious smile, acts in Hollywood blockbusters as well as no budget films.
John Malkovich will receive his CineMerit Award at a gala on June 27 at 7:30 pm in the festival center. Veronica Ferres, who appeared in KLIMT with Malkovich, is the keynote speaker. Brian Cook’s COLOUR ME KUBRICK – A TRUE…ISH STORY will follow. Five other Malkovich films are also being screened, among them Volker Schlörndorff’s THE OGRE, Spike Jonze’s BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, Raoul Ruiz’ KLIMT and THE DANCER UPSTAIRS, which Malkovich also directed.
[ source: FILMFEST MÜNCHEN ]