Willem Dafoe has been a cinema icon for more than three decades, whether screaming at the sky in Platoon, parrying paedophiles in The Florida Project, or chucking bombs at Spider-Man in, er, Spider-Man. His diverse back catalogue is about to be recognised by the Berlin International Film Festival, with Dafoe announced as the recipient of the Golden Bear lifetime achievement award.
Dafoe will pick up the trophy at a ceremony later in February and the festival will screen a retrospective in his honour, with films including The Last Temptation of Christ, Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Dafoe’s latest Wes Anderson collaboration, Isle of Dogs, is also opening the festival on 15 February.
Dafoe’s turn in The Florida Project could earn him his first Oscar in March, marking his third nomination by the Academy. His Best Supporting Actor nod is the sole Oscar nomination for Sean Baker’s film about under-privileged families living in a motel on the outskirts of Disneyland.
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