Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen is to be awarded the honorary Heart of Sarajevo prize by the upcoming Sarajevo Film Festival, which recently announced it would shift entirely online due to the virus crisis.
The star of The Hunt, TV series Hannibal and Thomas Vinterberg’s upcoming buzz title Another Round was due to attend the Eastern European festival to deliver a masterclass and receive the award.
But the festival announced yesterday that it had abandoned plans to host a physical event and will pivot all activity online, following a second spike in Covid-19 cases throughout the region. It means Mikkelsen will give his masterclass online and has been invited to attend the festival next year to collect his prize.
Born in Copenhagen, Mikkelsen began his career as a gymnast and dancer before scoring his film debut in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 crime drama Pusher. He has gone on to star in both big-budget and indie hits including James Bond blockbuster Casino Royale, Marvel superhero film Doctor Strange and Vinterberg’s The Hunt, for which Mikkelsen received the best actor prize at Cannes.
He will next be seen in Another Round, which received a Cannes 2020 label and has been selected to screen at Toronto and San Sebastian. Mikkelsen also has a leading role in Doug Liman’s dystopian sci-fi Chaos Walking, opposite Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, which Lionsgate is set to release in 2021.
As previously announced, Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco will also receive an honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the festival, which has programmed a retrospective of Franco’s films in its Tribute strand. Franco’s next feature, New Order, has been selected for Venice and Toronto.
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