Director Walter Hill to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award
13 Sep 2007
Award-winning director Walter Hill will receive the prestigious Joseph Plateau Award at the upcoming Flanders International Film Festival. The Joseph Plateau Life Time Achievement Award, considered the festival's highest honor, recognizes Hill's achievement in Filmmaking as a writer, director and producer, and will be presented during the 34th edition of the festival in Ghent, Belgium (October 9th - 20th).
The tribute evening will take place on Friday, October 12th at 7:30pm at the Kinepolis Theatre in Ghent. As part of the tribute, there will be a screening of Broken Trail that evening.
A retrospective of Walter Hill's films will be presented during the festival and include The Long Riders , Southern Comfort , The Warriors , 48 Hrs. , Geronimo: An American Legend , Alien , Streets of Fire and Johnny Handsome. Previous recipients of this honor include renowned filmmakers Robert Altman, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Lord Richard Attenborough, Roy E. Disney, Roger Corman, Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck, and Irwin Winkler, among others.
Walter Hill's distinguished career in film and television spans over 30 years and includes work as a writer, director and producer on projects ranging from classic westerns to action-packed thrillers and buddy comedies, all marked with his incredibly unique visceral style. His writing credits include The Getaway and The Drowning Pool. His feature film directing credits include Hard Times, 48 Hrs. and Another 48 Hrs. starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte, The Warriors, Southern Comfort starring Keith Carradine and Peter Coyote, Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken, Johnny Handsome starring Mickey Rourke and Morgan Freeman, and the Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm nominee The Long Riders starring David Carradine and Keith Carradine. Hill also directed Geronimo: An American Legend and Wild Bill and produced Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning science fiction blockbuster Alien starring Sigourney Weaver and served as Executive Producer on the 3 sequels in the legendary film series.
Recently, Hill received the DGA award and his second Emmy nomination for his direction of AMC's first-ever television movie Broken Trail. The film, which chronicles the waning days of America's West at the end of the 19th Century, stars Oscar-winner Robert Duvall, Oscar-nominee Thomas Haden Church, and Greta Scacchi. Broken Trail has been nominated for a total of 16 Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries. Hill previously won an Emmy for the pilot of HBO's neo-western Deadwood.
One of Europe's most prestigious film festivals, The Ghent International Film Festival will screen more than 200 films in and out of competition with Kathleen Turner heading the international jury. Among the many highlights of this year's festival will be the 7th Annual World Soundtrack Awards, to be held on the closing evening of the festival, Saturday, October 20th.