Editor

Festival Director Albert Wiederspiel explains his choice: “The life and work of Tilda Swinton can be described as interdisciplinary, bold, assured in their style, committed, political and much more. As an icon of today’s cinema scene, she was destined to win the Douglas Sirk Award.”

The German premiere of “Only Lovers Left Alive” by American director Jim Jarmusch (1999 winner of the Douglas Sirk Award) will be shown at the award ceremony. In the dreamlike drama, which was partly filmed in Hamburg, Tilda Swinton plays the melancholy, languorous vampire Eve, whose centuries-old relationship with Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is suddenly in jeopardy.

The film is a German co-production and was supported by Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. It will be released in German cinemas this Christmas 2013 (Pandora Filmverleih).

The Douglas Sirk Award is a prestigious prize which, since 1995, has been awarded annually at Filmfest Hamburg to a personality for their outstanding contribution to film (former award winners: Kim Ki-duk 2012, Andreas Dresen and Peter Rommel 2011).

Biography: Tilda Swinton was born on the 5th of November 1960 in London. She spent her childhood with her three brothers in one of the oldest manor houses in Scotland. Her education included a period as a boarder at the prestigious West Heath Girl’s School and, in 1983, she graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences.

She rose to fame on the stage with so-called “crossover roles” such as Mozart in Pushkin’s “Mozart and Salieri”. Her film debut was in “Caravaggio” by Derek Jarman in 1986. She built up a close friendship with Jarman, as well as with Christoph Schlingensief and David Bowie.

Academy Award® winner (2008) Tilda Swinton has continued to act in numerous experimental projects and non-mainstream productions, including “Orlando” (1992). She has also taken on roles in a range of films from major studios, such as “The Beach” (2000), “The Chronicles of Narnia” (2005), “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008), “Burn After Reading” (2008) and “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012).
 
The multi-award-winning actress also takes part in artistic projects and music videos and is involved in politics.

Tilda Swinton is a mother to twins and lives in Scotland.