The French actress Isabelle Huppert will be honored for her life’s work at the next Berlinale. The organizers of the festival announced this on Thursday. The 68-year-old will receive the Honorary Golden Bear on February 15, 2022 in the Berlinale Palast for her services to the cinema. Her new film “À propos de Joan” will also be shown at the award ceremony. In the drama, a woman, played by Huppert, learns that she will lose her memory, whereupon she looks back on her eventful life.
Huppert, born in Paris in 1954, is one of the most important actresses in France. At the age of 14 she took acting lessons and later studied at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur d’art Dramatique in Paris. She shot with Jean-Luc Godard (“Save yourself, who can”) and Michael Haneke (“The piano player”), among others. She worked particularly often with the director Claude Chabrol, with whom she made a total of seven films, including “Life is a Game” and “A Woman’s Thing”. In addition to the cinema, she also appeared regularly in the theater.
At the Cannes Film Festival she won a Golden Palm twice, but Huppert has also had close ties to the Berlinale for a long time. Seven of her films were shown in the competition at the most important German film festival, including the musical crime comedy “8 Women” by François Ozon.
“Isabelle Huppert is more than a celebrated actress – she is an inimitable artist who does not hesitate to take risks or oppose the mainstream,” said Berlinale bosses Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian in a statement. The 72nd Berlinale is scheduled to take place from February 10th to 20th, 2022. As part of a homage, some of Huppert’s classics will also be performed again.