Lynne Ramsay

Source: Brigitte Lacombe/DFI

Lynne Ramsay

Scottish director Lynne Ramsay is to receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival (August 11-18).

The award is given “in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film” and Ramsay will receive the award on August 16, ahead of an open-air screening of her 2017 feature You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

You Were Never Really Here premiered at Cannes, where Ramsay won the award for best screenplay and Phoenix picked up best actor prize.

The filmmaker won the Prix de Jury at Cannes in 1996 with her graduation short film Smalls And Death, and for her third short, Gasman, in 1998. Her debut feature, Ratcatcher, premiered in Un Certain Regard, winning a special mention.

Morvern Callar premiered at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight in 2002 and We Need To Talk About Kevin played in Competition at the festival in 2011.

Ramsay more recently directed short documentary Brigitte about French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, which premiered at Venice in 2019. She is working on projects including Margaret Atwood adaptation Stone Mattress, set to star Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh; Polaris, which would reunite her with Phoenix; and Die, My Love, an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s novel, in which Jennifer Lawrence is set to star and produce.

As previously announced, Sarajevo will also honour UK-Irish director Mark Cousins and US writer and filmmaker Charlie Kaufman with Heart of Sarajevo awards.