Hollywood star Kate Winslet honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award at Munich Film Festival
It’s like I’m a film star ... I’m just going to lap it up,' she told the cheering audience
Kate Winslet’s long list of awards just got longer after she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Munich International Film Festival on Wednesday.
The audience at Munich’s Deutsches Theatre cheered eamed and applauded when Winslet entered the stage to receive her award and talked about the European premiere of her latest film, Ellen Kuras’ biography ‘Lee’, in which she plays war photographer Lee Miller.
‘Lee’ is a 2023 British biographical drama, directed by Ellen Kuras, adapted from the 1985 biography ‘The Lives of Lee Miller’ by Antony Penrose. The film made its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2024.
“It’s like I’m a film star!” said Winslet. “No really, this is not how I usually get treated ... I’m just going to lap it up.”
David Kross, Winslet’s young German co-star from 'The Reader,' presented her with the CineMerit award, recalling that they first met “16 years ago when I was just 17 years old, had only made two films and had just left school. And you were Kate Winslet.”
Kross shared, how great “it was to celebrate turning 18 with you,” a reference to a scene in 'The Reader', which was shot on his 18th birthday, months after the rest of the film had wrapped, to allow Kross to reach legal age. “You were also my intimacy coordinator, a concept that didn’t even exist in those years,” he said.
“You poor boy,” said Winslet, thanking Kross. “We put you through a lot [on The Reader],” before noting that she had “been that. I had been 17 [on her film debut 'Heavenly Creatures'].”
The Munich CineMerit Prize was for Winslet’s life’s work, “You have won every prize under the sun, but this is the one you are missing,” the ceremony moderator said, but the actress was most passionate about Lee, a project she has been working on for the better part of a decade and her first film as a fully-credited producer.
“I can’t believe we did it,” she said of the film, which looks at a key decade in Lee Miller’s life, when the one-time fashion model-turned-photographer transformed herself into a war photographer, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
Winslet rose to fame with her role in James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ and gained further recognition for her performances in ‘Finding Neverland’, ‘Little Children’, ‘The Holiday’, and other films.
Kate received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.