Joseph Plateau Honorary Award for Parkes and MacDonald
16 Aug 2008
Producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will be honored with the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award at the upcoming 35th Ghent International Film Festival. This prestigious award will be presented to Parkes and MacDonald at a gala ceremony on October 11th. 3-time Oscar nominee Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have produced or executive produced over 30 films together including Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, Awakenings, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Amistad, Terminal, the Men in Black series and the Golden Globe winning adaptation of Stephen Sondeheim's musical thriller, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In addition to their producing work, Parkes and MacDonald served as co-heads of DreamWorks Pictures from the inception of the studio until mi-2005 and were responsible for the development and production of the company's diverse slate of films, which achieved both box office success and critical acclaim including 3 consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners: American Beauty, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. Other critical and commercial successes produced during their tenure include, Almost Famous, What Lies Beneath, Collateral as well as the Oscar and Golden Globe winning drama Saving Private Ryan.
"We are thrilled to have two of the most talented and respected producers in the film industry receiving this award this year. Walter and Laurie have produced some of the best pictures of the last 20 years and we are delighted that they will be in Ghent to help us celebrate our 35th anniversary" stated Jacques Dubrulle, Festival director of the Ghent International Film Festival.
The Joseph Plateau Honorary Award, the festival's highest honor, has been previously presented to some of the industry's top filmmakers including Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck, Roy E. Disney, Sydney Pollack, Sir David Puttnam, Irwin Winkler, Robert Altman, Stanley Donen, Lord Richard Attenborough, Mike Leigh, Alain Resnais and Bertrand Tavernier as well as actors Morgan Freeman, Jean Reno, Jeanne Moreau, Juliette Binoche, Vanessa Redgrave and Sir Peter Ustinov, among others.