Deneuve, Almodovar at the European Film Awards

French actress Catherine Deneuve French diva Catherine Deneuve and Spanish Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar will pick up honorary prizes at the European Film Awards in December in Berlin, organisers said Tuesday. Deneuve, 69, the icy blonde actress from classics such as "Belle de Jour" by Luis Bunuel and Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" will receive a lifetime achievement award for her work in more than 100 pictures, the European Film Academy said on its website.
"Be it as the mysterious beauty, the bourgeois housewife or a bisexual vampire, Catherine Deneuve has... given unforgettable moments to the world of cinema," the Academy said.
Deneueve won her first Cesar, France's top film prize, for 1980's "The Last Metro" by Francois Truffaut, and an Oscar nomination for her 1992 role in "Indochine" by Regis Wargnier.
Almodovar, 63, will pick up the award for European achievement in world cinema, the Academy said.
After coming of age as an artist under the nascent Spanish democracy with Super-8 filmmaking and work in independent theatre, Almodovar scored an international breakthrough with "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" in 1988.
The 1990 black comedy "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down" starring Antonio Banderas also became a global arthouse hit.
He scooped an Academy Award in 2002 for best original screenplay for "Talk to Her" about two men caring for comatose women.
"Pedro Almodovar has won virtually every award there is and his films have played an important role in shaping the way we see not only Spain but also European cinema itself," the Academy said.
The prizes will be presented at a gala ceremony in the German capital on December 7.
Source: AFP