Awards

Pamela Anderson

After achieving international fame with the series Baywatch, she lived a new professional season thanks to Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl (2024), presented at the Toronto Film Festival, for which she received the nominations to the Golden Globe, to the SAG Awards and to the Gotham Awards. In 2025 she acted beside Liam Neeson in the reboot of Naked Gun, while in 2026 she appeared in Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning, premiered at the Berlinale, and in Kornél Mundruczó’s Place to Be, premiered in Venice. In 2022 she made her debut on Broadway in the musical Chicago. She has always complemented her film and television career with a consistent commitment to philanthropy.

Fanny Ardant

She is one of the most distinctive figures in French cinema: actress, screenwriter and director. She achieved her breakthrough in Truffaut’s La Femme d’à côté (1981) and Vivement dimanche! (1983), and went on to work Alain Resnais, Ettore Scola, Volker Schlöndorff, Michelangelo Antonioni, François Ozon and Paolo Sorrentino. She won the two César for Best Actress (Pédale douce, 1996; La Belle Époque (2019) and shared the Silver Bear the cast of 8 Femmes (2002). She distinguished in her stage career, and as a filmmaker directed four features: Cendres et sang (2009), Cadences obstinées (2013), Le Divan de Staline (2016), and Ela Olhava Sem Nada Ver (2026).

Luc Besson

He is a globally recognized French director, screenwriter and producer, and the founder of EuropaCorp. For over four decades he has directed acclaimed, genre-defining films, including The Big Blue (1988), Nikita (1990), Léon (1994), The Fifth Element (1997) and the global blockbuster Lucy (2014). As a writer and producer, he launched successful action franchises, including Taxi, Taken and The Transporter. His recent work as a director includes Dogman (2023) and Dracula: A Love Tale (2025), the second most-seen French film internationally that year. In 2026, he wrote and produced Father Joe by Barthélémy Grossmann, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Ever Anderson and Al Pacino.

Stephen Frears

One of Britain’s leading contemporary directors, Stephen Frears is known for his versatility across styles, themes and genres. After an extensive career in television, he established himself in cinema with My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), followed by Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and The Grifters (1990), which earned him an Academy Award nomination. His best-known films include The Queen (2006), which won a BAFTA and received six Oscar nominations, Philomena (2013), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and Victoria & Abdul (2017). He has also directed acclaimed television productions, including A Very English Scandal (2018), for which he won a BAFTA.

Andy Garcia

An actor, film and television director, and music producer, he received an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather: Part III (1990). He has worked with renowned directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderbergh, Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Hal Ashby, Mike Figgis, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Frears, and Sidney Lumet. He received a second Golden Globe nomination and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story. As a director, he helmed The Lost City (2005) and Diamond (2026), which was presented out of competition at Cannes.

Isabelle Huppert

One of the leading actresses in European cinema, Isabelle Huppert rose to prominence in the 1970s with Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker (1977) and Claude Chabrol’s Violette Nozière (1978), beginning a fruitful collaboration that also produced Madame Bovary (1988) and La Cérémonie (1995). She has won two Best Actress awards at Cannes, for Violette Nozière and Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001), and two Volpi Cups in Venice, for Story of Women (1988) and La Cérémonie (1995). In 2017, she received an Academy Award nomination for Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. He has worked with major figures in French and international cinema, such as Godard, Ferreri, Pialat, Téchiné, Bolognini, Losey, Cimino, Ozon, Assayas, Claire Denis, Catherine Breillat, and Hong Sang-soo. Alongside her prolific screen career, she has also distinguished herself on stage.

Maria de Medeiros

Born in Lisbon into a family of musicians and raised in Vienna, she made her debut in João César Monteiro’s Silvestre (1981). An actress, director and musician, she trained at the Paris Conservatory and then started a career spanning theatre, where she worked with Bob Wilson, and cinema. She has acted for Manoel de Oliveira (The Divine Comedy, 1991; Porto of My Childhood, 2001), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, 1994), Bigas Luna, Guy Maddin and Antonietta De Lillo. Coppa Volpi at Venice for Teresa Villaverde’s Three Brothers (1994), she has directed, among others, the features April Captains (2000) and Our Children (2019), and the documentary Repare Bem (2012).

Mike Newell

British director initially active in television, he made his transition to cinema with The Man in the Iron Mask (1977).
Having established himself with Dance with a stranger (1985), awarded at Cannes, he achieved international recognition with Enchanted April (1991) and above all thanks to the comedy Four wedding and a funeral (1994), for which he won the Bafta for best picture and best director.
He then worked in Hollywood directing a film that eventually became a cult classic, Donnie Brasco (1997), and then Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), continuing with literary adaptations such as Great Expectations (2012).

Josh Safdie

Raised in New York, between Queens and Manhattan, a director, screenwriter, producer and editor, he has developed a distinctive style with his brother Benny, marked by raw energy and emotional urgency. His acclaimed films include Daddy Longlegs (2009), Heaven Knows What (2015), Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019), which earned him a directing award from the New York Film Critics Circle. In 2025, he directed, co-wrote and edited Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, which received nine Academy Award nominations and won a Golden Globe. In 2026, he directed a Nike commercial celebrating the New York Knicks and released his first fine art print, acquired by the Whitney Museum.

Mira Sorvino

The daughter of actor Paul Sorvino, she graduated from Harvard University with a degree in East Asian Studies. She rose to prominence with Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995), earning the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996) and appeared in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), Mimic (1997) and Summer of Sam (1999). She is a human rights advocate. For fifteen years, she served as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking and continues to champion survivors of sexual violence and the protection of women and children.

John Travolta

Among Hollywood’s most celebrated stars, with more than fifty years of experience in film and television, he received two Academy Award nominations for Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Pulp Fiction (1994) and won a Golden Globe for Get Shorty (1995).
He has worked with directors such as De Palma (Carrie, 1976; Blow Out, 1981), Nichols (Primary Colors, 1998), John Woo (Face/Off, 1997) and Stone (Savages, 2012), moving between musicals (Grease, 1978; Hairspray, 2007), thrillers and comedies. He also won an Emmy for the People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016).
At the Festival, he presents Propeller One – Way Night Coach, his directorial debut, which premiered at Cannes, where he was awarded the Honorary Palme d’Or. 

Margarethe Von Trotta

She became involved in film in the 1960s in Paris, and after returning to Germany, she studied acting and made her debut as an actress, working with Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Herbert Achternbusch. After co-directing The Case of Katharina Blum (1975) with Schlöndorff, she directed her first solo film, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978), and subsequently became one of the most important figures in German cinema. Among her most significant works are Marianne and Julianne (1981, Golden Lion at Venice), Rosa Luxemburg (1986), Rosenstrasse (2003), and Hannah Arendt (2012), all centered on female protagonists and their relationship to the political history of the 20th century.