French actress Isabelle Huppert is to become the latest recipient of the Douglas Sirk Prize during this year's Filmfest Hamburg (Sept 19-26).

The Prize, which goes to a personality who has made a special contribution to film culture through their work, will be presented to Huppert by Hamburg's Culture Senator Dana Horakova at an official luncheon on September 25.

Commenting on this year's recipient, Filmfest director Albert Wiederspiel expressed satisfaction in being able to "to honour a European artist who has attained and earned star status with her films also showing outside of her own country. Particularly since it is so difficult to speak of 'the' European cinema, we should really cultivate our European stars and be proud of them."

While Huppert's Cannes competition film Time Of The Wolf by Michael Haneke will screen in the festval programme on September 25 and 26, the Filmfest will open this year on September 19 with the German premiere of the British comedy Calendar Girls.

The Filmfest will close on Sept 26 with Polish director Lukasz Barczyk's family drama Changes which had previously screened in Danzig and Montreal.