Dustin Hoffman will receive the Actor Tribute this year at the Independent Film Project Gotham Awards.
The two-time Academy Award and six-time Golden Globe winning actor stars in Noah Baumbach’s new film “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” which had its New York premiere last Sunday at the New York Film Festival. Hoffman co-stars with Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson and Adam Sandler. The film premiered in competition at the Cannes International Film Festival this past May, to standing ovations. Netflix will release the film on October 13, 2017.
“The Meyerowitz Stories” is already getting awards buzz, especially for the writer-director and for Adam Sandler, who hasn’t had a role this good since “Punch Drunk Love” in 2002.
In “The Meyerowitz Stories,” Hoffman plays the patriarch of a dysfunctional family. A minor sculptor he’s more concerned with his artistic legacy than his children, who have different mothers and who he plays off each other. On the red carpet at the film’s New York Film Festival premiere I asked what was key for him in getting into the role of an artist whose work has mostly been overlooked.
Hoffman is one of the most successful actors in the world but his response was modest,
“It’s not difficult and I don’t think it was any different for the people that played my children or even Emma (Thompson) who placed my wife. Success or failure is really sometimes irrelevant because it has to do with luck. I’ve been doing this for 50 years I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve known over those years, directors, writers, actors, who somehow weren’t there at the right moment, lucky enough to get what I got and I think there’s truth to that. It has nothing to with talent. I mean it’s nice to be talented but sometimes if you’re not there at that moment, you have a totally different part. And that’s painful.”
From the IFP press release announcing the news of the tribute: “We are thrilled to present Dustin Hoffman with the Actor Tribute. Starting with his breakthrough role in the timeless classic The Graduate to his highly praised turn in his upcoming film, The Meyerowitz Stories, Dustin’s wide range of roles – often portraying antiheroes or the marginalized – and the creative choices he has embodied in these complex characters, has firmly placed him amongst the most compelling actors to have graced the screen,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center.
From the release, here are some of Hoffman’s accomplishments spanning a 60-year career:
“Dustin Hoffman gained universal attention in his role as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, for which he was nominated for his first Academy Award for Best Actor. Since then, he has gone on to win two Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man and receive four additional nominations for Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie and Wag The Dog. Other film credits include: Straw Dogs, Papillon, All the President’s Men, Marathon Man, and I Heart Huckabees.
In 1984, Hoffman garnered a Drama Desk Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, which he also produced. In addition to starring in the Broadway production, a special presentation aired on television for which Hoffman won the Emmy® Award. Additionally, Hoffman received a Tony® Award nomination for his role as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, which he reprised from his long run on the London Stage.
In addition to his celebrated acting both on stage and on screen, Hoffman made his directorial debut with the feature film Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood’s stage play. The film was recognized by the National Board of Review for being one of the “Top Ten Independent Films” in 2012. Hoffman was also awarded with the Breakthrough Director Award by the Hollywood Film Awards.
In 1997, he was awarded the Golden Globe’s esteemed Cecil B. DeMille Award, and an Honorary César Medal at the 2009 César Awards. Hoffman was also recognized at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. “
Also announced today, Sofia Coppola will receive the Director Tribute.
Nominees will be announced on October 19th and winners will be honored at the star-studded ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on November 27th.
IFP recently announced that Nicole Kidman will receive the Actress Tribute, former Vice President Al Gore the Humanitarian Tribute, Ed Lachman the Cinematographers Tribute, and Film Producer and Founder of Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum the Industry Tribute at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards.
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