Oscar Winner Tim Robbins to Receive Berlinale Camera Honor

Since 1986 the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks.

At the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, three personalities will be awarded the Berlinale Camera: producer, cinema operator and film distributor Ben Barenholtz (USA); actor, director, writer and producer Tim Robbins (USA); and cinema operator Marlies Kirchner (Germany).

Tim Robbins has been a successful working actor, director, writer and producer in Hollywood for almost 40 years. He won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Mystic River (D: Clint Eastwood, 2003), and a Best Actor Award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival for his role in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER (1992). His additional acting credits include such films as Bull Durham (D: Ron Shelton, 1988), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), The Shawshank Redemption (D: Frank Darabont, 1994), The Hudsucker Proxy (D: Joel & Ethan Coen, 1994), Isabel Coixet's The Secret Life of Words (2005) and Fernando León de Aranoa's A Perfect Day (2015.)

Robbins wrote and directed the 1992 political satire, Bob Roberts, and the 1999 film, Cradle Will Rock, which earned a nomination for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and won two Gran Angular Awards - Best Film and Best Director - at the Sitges Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya.) The DEATH ROW drama, Dead Man Walking, won several prizes at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival, including a Silver Bear for lead actor Sean Penn, and went on to earn four Academy Award nominations, with Susan Sarandon winning for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Robbins attended the Berlinale once again in 2013 as a member of the International Jury.

In addition to his work on film, Robbins is founder of The Actors' Gang, a theatre ensemble based in Los Angeles where he has served for over 30 years as Artistic Director. The Gang has been touring throughout the US and internationally with productions of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", George Orwell's "1984", "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine" and "Embedded".

Additionally, the Actors' Gang Prison Project works to help California prison inmates rehabilitate themselves through the arts, with acting members of the Gang, including Robbins, working with inmates in several California Prisons. To date more than 500 inmates have participated in The Prison Project, which recently received the endorsement of the California Department of Corrections and the U.S. Justice Department.
In 2014, Robbins was honored with the National Guild for Community Arts Education Leadership Award, recognizing his innovative and socially conscious work as a film and theater artist, his passionate commitment to equity and social justice, as well as his steadfast advocacy and support for arts education. The Guild noted that "The Prison Project at The Actors' Gang is an inspiring, national model for our field which demonstrates the power of arts participation to unlock human potential and creativity, heal, and transform lives."

The Berlinale Camera will be awarded to Tim Robbins on Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 10.30 pm in the Kino International cinema, with Catalan director Isabel Coixet giving the honorific speech and German actor Louis Klamroth presenting. The award ceremony will be followed by a screening of Dead Man Walking (1995).

Source: Berlinale.de

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos