Benedict Cumberbatch set to receive TIFF Tribute Actor Award
Article content
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Academy Award–nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch has been named as the recipient of this year’s TIFF Tribute Actor Award.
Cumberbatch — who was up for an Oscar for his work in The Imitation Game — is being feted for his past work and his appearance in this year’s TIFF films The Power of the Dog and TheElectrical Life of Louis Wain biopic.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Benedict Cumberbatch set to receive TIFF Tribute Actor Award Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“Benedict has portrayed some of the most memorable characters screened at TIFF, whether it was Alan Turing in The Imitation Game or Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate; he also has an uncanny ability to take on interesting, complex roles and make them his own in films such as 12 Years a Slave and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — all of which screened at the Festival,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF.
In The Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion, Cumberbatch will play one half of a pair of wealthy Montana brothers, who feud over a woman (Kirsten Dunst), while in TheElectrical Life of Louis Wain he’ll take on the role of the eccentric artist who was obsessed with cats.
Cumberbatch will be honoured alongside Jessica Chastain, who is at this year’s festival with The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which looks at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
Along with Cumberbatch and Chastain, the fest will also recognize artist, filmmaker, singer, writer, and activist Alanis Obomsawin and Denis Villeneuve, who has been named the recipient of this year’s Ebert Director Award. Villeneuve’s anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune is set for a special IMAX screening as part of this year’s annual celebration of cinema.
Previous recipients of the TIFF Tribute Actor Award include Meryl Streep, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Like the TIFF’s People’s Choice Prize, the Tribute Actor Award has had a successful track record come Oscar time. Phoenix won a Best Actor statuette for Joker after being named the festival’s inaugural award winner in 2019, while Hopkins took home his second Oscar for The Father in April.
This year’s Best Director, Chloe Zhao, also won the TIFF Ebert Director Award.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
In an interview with the Sun earlier this year, Cumberbatch, who also plays Doctor Strange for Marvel, said he liked the opportunity to try different things in his career.
“For me, what’s interesting is doing something novel and something that I haven’t explored before,” he said.
TIFF, which will offer in-person and digital screenings, runs from Sept. 9-18. For more info, visit TIFF.net.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.