The 18th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 22-Oct 2) will present its Golden Icon Award to the British actor Sir Ben Kingsley during the festival on September 29 – the event is one of the film festival’s top highlights. Kingsley will present the European premiere of his latest movie DALÍLAND, in which he portrays the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. In addition, Sir Ben Kingsley will speak about his career in a ZFF Masters.
Sir Ben Kingsley has not played just one iconographic role in film history, but several: He was the title character in GANDHI, Oskar Schindler’s bookkeeper, and has worked with such director greats as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Isabel Coixet. “Sir Ben Kingsley is an outstanding and highly versatile character actor who is not only completely absorbed in his roles, but is also able to imbue his characters with a rare human depth,” says Christian Jungen, ZFF Artistic Director. “With his nuanced acting, Kingsley has the ability to present the inner life of his characters to the outside world and to embody complex, fractured characters in a convincing and haunting way. A number of Kingsley’s films, including GANDHI and SCHINDLER’S LIST, are among the most significant milestones in film history, making him in turn one of the most famous actors in the world.”
Sir Ben Kingsley will be in Zurich to accept the Golden Icon Award in person on September 29, 2022. The accolade is awarded to personalities who have impacted on cinema through their achievements in acting, and have become an icon for an entire generation. “I’m a storyteller, nothing more and nothing less. So I’m touched that Zurich should see fit to honour me for this, my simple, ancient craft” states Sir Ben Kingsley. On September 29, he will also hold a ZFF Masters and talk about his career.
Kingsley presents his new movie in Zurich, Mary Harron’s DALÍLAND. In it, he embodies the eccentric Spanish painter Salvador Dalí who, together with his new assistant, is busy preparing an important show in New York in 1973, while his tempestuous marriage to wife Gala (Barbara Sukowa) is on the verge of collapse.
Sir Ben Kingsley, born in Yorkshire, England in 1943 to an Englishwoman and a Kenyan of Indian descent, began his career with “The Royal Shakespeare Company”. With his first leading cinema role, in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 movie GANDHI he immediately landed his greatest success. His portrayal of Gandhi won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 1983 Academy Awards, and he also received a BAFTA Award and a Grammy for his recording of Gandhi’s speeches.
His celebrated performance as Gandhi brought him numerous other top-class engagements, including MAURICE (1987), BUGSY (1991) and SNEAKERS (1992). In 1993, Steven Spielberg cast him in SCHINDLER’S LIST as Itzhak Stern, Oskar Schindler’s Jewish secretary, a role that cemented Kingsley’s status as a legend.
Since then, Kingsley has often appeared in such cult pictures as THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (2003), LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (2007) and WAR INC. (2008), as well as mainstream box office hits like PRINCE OF PERSIA (2010), IRON MAN 3 (2013) and EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) and SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGENDS OF THE TEN RINGS (2021). With Martin Scorsese, he starred in SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) and HUGO CABRET (2011), and with Roman Polanski in DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1994) and OLIVER TWIST (2005). He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. In 2010, Kingsley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.
Previous recipients of the Golden Icon Award include, among others, Glenn Close, Hugh Grant, Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Penn and last year’s recipient Sharon Stone. The presentation of the award at the ZFF is one of the festival’s most glamorous highlights.
Credit Suisse is Partner of the Golden Icon Award.