StockholmFilm Festival Dedicates its 19th Edition to Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack spent over four decades developing himself into a multi-facetted master within film. Not only was he a talented actor but one of the most accomplished directors and producers of his time. On November 23 the Stockholm Film Festival will will pay tribute to Sydney Pollack with a special screening of his 1969 film “They Shoot Horses Don´t They?”
Born in 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, Sydney Pollack moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in acting. He studied and taught drama, as well as performed as an actor. After directing a large number of television shows, Pollack made his directorial feature debut in 1965 with “The Slender Thread”. During a long career as a film director, working virtually until his death, multiple Academy Award-winner Pollack brought out the best in stars such as Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Over a span of four decades, he established himself as a master of intelligent and well-crafted drama within the Hollywood paradigm, as well as a skilled actor with an amazingly broad spectrum. He died of cancer on May 26th, 2008.

Previous dedications at the festival have included amongst others Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Billy Wilder and Ingmar Bergman.

Wong Kar Wai will also be honored with the Stockholm Visionary Award
The 19th Stockholm International Film Festival presents the Stockholm Visionary Award 2007 to Chinese director Wong Kar Wai. Wong Kar Wai will visit the festival to accept the award in person and to meet the audience in a special Face2face on Nov 28.

Mr Wong Kar Wai is a visionary director that has moved audiences in every corner of the world with his cinematic language. He has a unique abilty to cast the creatures of the night in a romantic and moody light while capturing the beauty of the fleeting moment on the silver screen . It is an honor to present Mr Wong Kar Wai with the Stockholm Visionary Award for his continuous exploration of the labyrinth of the human heart in a search with no boundaries in time, space or form.

Born in 1956 in Shanghai, China, Kar Wai graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in 1980, and thereafter enrolled in a screenwriter’s program. In 1994, he received the FIPRESCI Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival for “Chungking Express”. And in 1997, “Happy Together” won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Kar-Wai’s first feature in English, “My Blueberry Nights” from 2007, engaged major contemporary film stars such as Rachel Weiss, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

Together with his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Kar-Wai has developed a distinctive cinematic style, where the visual imagery is a language of its own. This directorial trademark is perhaps most evident in Kar-Wai’s biggest commercial success so far, “In the Mood for Love” (2000).

Wong Kar Wai will attend the Stockholm International Film Festival to receive the Bronze Horse award in person as well as participate in a Face2Face in conjunction with the screening of his film “Ashes of Time Redux” on November 28.