Veteran Swiss actor Bruno Ganz is to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 23rd European Film Awards in December.

Famous for playing a fallen angel in Wim Wenders’ 1987 Wings Of Desire, and Adolf Hitler in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2004 film Downfall, Ganz has worked with a string of other notable directors throughout his career including Werner Herzog in Nosferatu The Vampyre, Francis Ford Coppola in Youth Without Youth, Silvio Soldini in comedy Bread And Tulips and Stephen Daldry in The Reader.

He was recently elected as president of the Germany Film Academy along with actress Iris Berben.

The academy said it had chosen the 69-year-old Ganz because he had “lent his face to some of cinema’s most unforgettable moments”.

He is expected to pick up his award at the ceremony, which takes place on December 4 in Tallinn, Estonia.

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