The 17th Zurich Film Festival honors the US actress with its highest accolade. Sharon Stone will be in Zurich to accept the award in person on Saturday, September 25. The award ceremony will be followed by a screening of Martin Scorsese’s thriller CASINO, which won the highly versatile character actress an Oscar Nomination. Moreover, Sharon Stone will hold a ZFF Masters where she will offer the public a fascinating insight into her creative process and remarkable career.
Sharon Stone will be honored for her acting career at the 17th Zurich Film Festival. She will accept the award on September 25. Following the award ceremony, the ZFF will present the actress in one of her most impressive roles: as Ginger in Martin Scorsese’s epic gangster movie CASINO, which sees Stone set out to hustle casino manager Sam «Ace» Rothstein (Robert De Niro). There has never been a stronger female figure in a Scorsese movie. The role brought Stone a Golden Globe and an Oscar Nomination.
“Sharon Stone is a true icon of the seventh art,” explains Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival. “She is a woman that Hitchcock would have loved. Her distinguishing qualities include an irresistible charm, a great human depth, the talent to play a whole range of roles and the ability to captivate an audience like no other. At a time when the film business was dominated by men, she stood her ground to fight against sexism and in doing so became a major role model for many women in the film business.”
Sharon Stone is the fifth actress in a row to receive the Golden Icon Award.
“It is an honor to engage with the global community and celebrate the profound depth of our art,” says Stone about receiving the Golden Icon Award. “I am thrilled to be recognized in this capacity.”
Now a mother of three, Stone made movie history some 30 years ago with her breakthrough role as the femme fatale in BASIC INSTINCT (1992). In the years that followed, however, Stone refused to be typecast as a man-eating vamp. In fact, the actress, whose memoirs recently addressed the ills of Hollywood in the New York Times bestseller “The Beauty of Living Twice”, has proven herself to be an exceedingly versatile character actress.
Not least in France, the motherland of cinema, Stone is frenetically revered: she recently received the “Commandeur des Arts et Lettres”, the highest accolade for cultural workers at Cannes. Festival Director Thierry Fremaux presented the actress with this great honor and in doing so emphasized his appreciation for the Hollywood icon who handed over this year’s Golden Palm to the winning film and is loved in France as Kim Novak once was. The star was already immortalized in 2005 when she appeared on the cover of the film magazine “Cahiers du cinema”.
Sharon Stone, born in Meadville, a small town in Pennsylvania, first embarked on a career as a model. Shortly after being crowned “Miss Pennsylvania” at the age of 17, Stone moved to New York in order to become a professional model, but soon found herself on the silver screen: Woody Allen gave her her first role as an extra in STARDUST MEMORIES (1980), with Stone listed in the credits as “Beautiful Girl on Train”.
She made a name for herself with the help of director Paul Verhoeven, who cast her in TOTAL RECALL (1990) before offering her the role of Catherine Tramell, the woman with the icepick, in BASIC INSTINCT. The movie’s great success led to Stone being offered film after film: she starred alongside William Baldwin in SLIVER (1993), performed opposite Sylvester Stallone in THE SPECIALIST (1994) and skillfully demonstrated her gun slinging abilities in THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995), a movie that was only made possible because she co-produced it. She went on to appear in such renowned productions as LAST DANCE (1996) and SPHERE (1998), and further proved her versatility as an actress in the drama THE MIGHTY (1998) and the comedy THE MUSE (1999), picking up two Golden Globes in the process. In recent years, she appeared in THE LAUNDROMAT (2019) among others, which was screened as a Gala Premiere at the ZFF.
Last but by no means least, Stone has also excelled in TV series, most recently in the Netflix hit production RATCHED (2020), which followed convincing performances in THE NEW POPE (2019) and the HBO series MOSAIC (2017), all after winning the 2004 Emmy for Guest Actress in a Drama Series category for her performance in THE PRACTICE (2004).
Stone has also received various awards for her community engagements, including a Nobel Peace Summit Award, the Harvard Humanitarian Award, a Human Rights Campaign Humanitarian Award and the Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award.
Previous recipients of the Golden Icon Award include Juliette Binoche, Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas, Richard Gere and Sean Penn.
Credit Suisse is the official partner of the Golden Icon Award.
The complete program of the 17th Zurich Film Festival will be published on the website on Thursday, September 9, from 12 noon local time. In addition, it can be viewed on the official festival app Tribo, where it is also possible to compile a personal festival program. Ticket sales will start on Monday, September 13, from 12 noon local time.
