Actress Geraldine Chaplin receives Joseph Plateau Honorary Award

The American-British-Spanish Geraldine Chaplin accepted her award before the festival's first screening of ‘The Barefoot Emperor,’ Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens' political satire starring Chaplin in a double role. A younger Geraldine can also be seen at our festival, with the screenings of ‘Ana and the Wolves’ - one of many films by director Carlos Saura, with whom Chaplin wrote both French and Spanish cinematic history.

Geraldine Chaplin's career spans over 50 years and includes a filmography of more than 150 titles. The actress' big break came with ‘Doctor Zhivago’ in 1965, in which she played Tonya – one of the film’s female leads. The actress would go on to star in and work on films by Robert Altman (‘Nashville’), Martin Scorsese (‘The Age of Innocence’), Jodie Foster ('Home for the Holidays'), Pedro Almodóvar ('Hable con Ella'), Claude Lelouch ('Les uns et les autres'), Jacques Rivette ('L'amour par terre'), Jane Birkin ('Les Boites'), Alain Resnais ('La vie est un roman'), Juan Antonio Bayona ('Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'), to name only a few. In Richard Attenborough's 'Chaplin', from 1992, she portrayed her own grandmother. Geraldine Chaplin has also contributed to numerous Broadway productions.

Film Fest Gent programming director, Wim De Witte, has nothing but praise for the star: “The way Chaplin embodies vulnerable, suffering and searching portrayals has moved and touched audiences throughout history, and continues to do so.”

Chaplin already owns her share of prizes, including a Goya Award - a Spanish Oscar, so to speak - and a medal of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. She has also been nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Now she can add the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award to her collection.

Geraldine is Film Fest Gent’s second honorary guest to receive a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award this year. The first Joseph Plateau Honorary Award of the season was offered to Agusti Villaronga, Spain’s often neglected master director.

The Joseph Plateau Honorary Award celebrates guests for their special contribution to the art of filmmaking.