U.S. director, screenwriter and producer Tim Burton, 63, will receive the prestigious Lumière Award at the 14th edition of the Lumière Festival, which takes place from 15 to 23 October in Lyon, France, the festival’s organisers announced on Wednesday.
The prize was created in 2009 by the Institut Lumière – directed by Bertrand Tavernier until his death in March 2021 – to honour personalities for their entire works and their link with the history of cinema.
Presented in Lyon, it has become over the years one of the most prestigious prizes recognized by the profession and the international press.
The Californian will succeed New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion (2021 laureate), the Dardenne brothers (2020) and fellow American Francis Ford Coppola (2019).
“He is a visionary, a stylist and an artist who has offered world cinema a universe of a rare coherence and an unprecedented aesthetic impact in popular culture,” the management of the international film festival said in a press release.
“This fall, Lumière 2022 will therefore offer a plunge into Wonderland, somewhere between Americana and its legends, Victorian England, futuristic megalopolises and suburban housing estates, in the company of heroes, monsters, monstrous heroes or heroic monsters from the world of Tim Burton,” it added.
A lover of fantasy who was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, this “true rock star of the 7th art” – the organisers’ words – has delivered several gems in 35 years of filmmaking. These include “Batman”, “Dumbo”, “BettleJuice”, “Edward Scissorhands”, “Big Fish”, “Sleepy Hollow”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Mars attacks”.
Burton has worked with a host of actors, including stalwarts Michael Keaton, Johnny Depp – whom he has directed eight times – and Helena Bonham Carter, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children.
His long collaboration with composer Danny Elfman, who wrote him some of the most beautiful themes of contemporary cinema, helped forge the Burton legend, the Festival Lumière management recalled.
Previous recipients of the award, which Burton will receive on 21 October, include Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-wai, Catherine Deneuve, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodóvar, Quentin Tarantino, Ken Loach, Gérard Depardieu, Milos Forman and Clint Eastwood.
