In recognition of a unique and dedicated contribution to the world of film, the European Film Academy takes great pleasure in presenting Agnès Varda with the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for her outstanding body of work.

As a writer and director, Agnès Varda continues to be an important voice in French and European cinema as well as in the world of art. Her first film, LA POINTE COURTE (1954), was hardly shown but it already gave a glimpse of her very personal style and earned her the title of «grandmother of the French New Wave». Her film CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7, 1961) was selected at Cannes Festival and won the French Critics’ Award. 

Among her many films are LIONS LOVE (… and LIES) (1968), DOCUMENTEUR (1981), shot in Los Angeles, ONE SINGS THE OTHER DOESN’T (L’une chante, l’autre pas, 1976), JACQUOT (de NANTES) (1990)... All her films often combine the fictional with the documentary.

She has won virtually every award there is, among them a Silver Bear in Berlin for HAPPINESS (Le Bonheur, 1965), a Golden Lion in Venice for VAGABOND (Sans toit ni loi, 1985), a European Film Award for THE GLEANERS AND I (Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse, 2000), and a French César for THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (Les Plages d’Agnès, 2008).
Her work has been honoured with a Carosse d’Or at the Cannes Festival, an honorary César and a Pardo d’onore in Locarno.

Agnès Varda has created more than 30 short, documentary and fiction films for both TV and cinema, and exhibitions of photographs and art installations: PATATUTOPIA, created at the Venice Art Biennale 2003, THE WIDOWS OF NOIRMOUTIER in a big exhibition at La Fondation Cartier in Paris (2006), A SHACK OF CINEMA shown at LACMA in Los Angeles (2013) and a solo exhibition, TRIPTYQUES ATYPIQUES at Obadia Gallery in Paris (2014).

Agnès Varda will be an honorary guest at the 27th European Film Awards Ceremony on 13 December in Riga - streamed live on www.europeanfilmawards.eu