Award-Winning director and producer Norman Jewison, renowned for such films as In The Heat Of The Night, Fiddler On The Roof and The Thomas Crown Affair, will be presented with the Joseph Plateau Award at this year’s 38th Ghent Film Festival, which takes place in the Belgian city (October 11-22).

The Award is presented to those whose achievements have earned them a distinct place in the history of international filmmaking, with Morgan Freeman, Vanessa Redgrave, Mike Leigh and Sydney Pollack amongst those to have previously been honoured. 

Despite spending most of his career working in the United States, Canadian-born Jewison has been chosen for the international award due to the way his films “always entertained audiences but also addressed key social issues and exposed various forms of injustice,” according to Patrick Duynslaegher, artistic director of the Ghent Film Festival.

To mark the occasion, the festival will be screening Jewison’s 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair on Oct 21, preceded by a Q&A session with Jewison and Duynslaegher starting at 4pm in Kinepolis 8.