Isabelle Huppert named as this year’s prestigious Lumière Award recipient

The prestigious Prix Lumière 2024 will be awarded to French actress Isabelle Huppert at the 16th Lumière Festival in Lyon in October.

The festival announced that the actress is “one of the most famous and celebrated French actresses in the world and highlighted that her career “embraces an immense part of the history of contemporary cinema".

The festival also hails the "uniquely wide-ranging and impactful filmography" of a "global actress who dazzles both screen and stage, who lends herself to the lenses of photography and fashion, and who has won the most prestigious international film awards".

Hupert, 71, tallies more than 150 roles, and countless awards.

With 16 nominations and two wins, Huppert is the most nominated actress at the French Oscars, the César Awards. She also won several trophies over the years, inlcuding a BAFTA Award, three European Film Awards, three Cannes Palmes, two Volpi Cups in Venice, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination. In 2022, she received the Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlinale.

Also a prolific stage actress, Huppert is the most nominated actress for the Molière Award, with nine nominations. She received an honorary Molière in 2017.

She succeeds German director Wim Wenders, who won the Prix Lumière last year.

She becomes the third actress to receive the award after Catherine Deneuve in 2016 and Jane Fonda in 2018, and only the fourth woman to be granted the honour, after Jane Campion in 2021.

"It's a magnificent prize, just like its festival. And it's a prize named after the inventors of cinema! Receiving it is a joy and a source of pride," the actress told festival organizers.

Before receiving the award on 18 October, the legendary actress will head up the 2024 Venice Film Festival, serving as jury president of the 81st edition.

The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival will run from 12-16 October.