Stockholm Visionary Award to Gus Van Sant

The Stockholm International Film Festival is proud to present this year’s recipient of the Stockholm Visionary Award – director Gus Van Sant. He will attend the festival in November to receive the award, meet the audience at a special Face2Face and host an exclusive Master class.

– It is a dream come true to have Gus Van Sant visit the Festival. His films and visions of an alternative America is a celebration of film art and have been a part of the Stockholm Film Festival for twenty years, says Festival Director Git Scheynius. Gus Van Sant was born in 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky and is one of modern cinema’s greatest American directors. He is known for his poetic vision and for his ability to get authentic and unforgettable performances out of his actors regardless if they are Hollywood stars as Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn or teenage amateurs. His career started in underground circles but Mr. Van Sant soon made himself a name as a director that could easily steer both independent films with poetic vision such as Drugstore Cowboy and Last Days as well as bigger productions like Good Will Hunting and Milk, without loosing his personal style. He is also an acknowledged photographer and has published the book 108 Portraits that depict the same disconnected and misunderstood youths that inhabit his films. Mr. Van Sant has been one of the Festival’s favorite directors through out it’s twenty-year history. From My Own Private Idaho that competed for the Bronze Horse in 1991 and Elephant that closed the Festival in 2003 to Paranoid Park in 2007. But also as a supporter of new talent and producer for Tarnation by Jonathan Caouette and Wild Tigers I Have Known by Cam Archer. Gus Van Sant at the Stockholm International Film Festival 1991 My Own Private Idaho 1995 To Die For 1997 Allen Ginsberg’s Ballad of the Skeletons 2003 Elephant 2007 Paris Je T’aime 2007 Paranoid Park The Stockholm Visionary Award was created in 2004 to highlight and honor the visionaries in modern film. The prestigious prize, the 7,3 kg heavy bronze horse – the heaviest film award in the world, is a paraphrase of the Swedish dala horse and is created by Fredrik Swärd. Earlier winners are among others Todd Solondz (2004), Terry Gilliam (2005), Wes Anderson (2007) and Wong Kar Wai (2008) Press images: Visit www.stockholmfilmfestival.se, click on ”press” (username: press2010, password stockholm) For more information visit www.stockholmfilmfestival.se or contact the press department!