Homage 2018: Willem Dafoe

The 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival dedicated the Homage to American film and theatre actor Willem Dafoe and presented him with an Honorary Golden Bear in recognition of his life’s work. To accompany the awarding of the Honorary Golden Bear, a screening of Daniel Nettheim’s film The Hunter (Australia 2011) took place following the official presentation at Berlinale Palast February 20, 2018. The film programme for the Homage was curated by Deutsche Kinemathek.

Willem Dafoe has participated in more than 100 film productions, enriching them with his expressive performances and formidable presence. His enormous technical range as an actor extends all the way from the personification of the unfathomably evil to the portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth. In addition to his celebrated cinematic appearances, Dafoe has also pursued a parallel career in theatre, his other passion.

“Willem Dafoe is a close friend of the festival and has often been a guest at the Berlinale in the past in the scope of film screenings and even as a member of the International Jury in 2007,” comments Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. “I am really looking forward now to welcoming him to the 2018 edition of the festival as a guest of honour and recognising his lifetime achievement with the Honorary Golden Bear.”

Willem Dafoe began studying theatre formally at the age of 17. In 1977, he was one of the founding members of the renowned New York theatre ensemble “The Wooster Group”, where he remained a member for several decades. In addition to his activities on stage, Dafoe increasingly began to turn his attention to film work starting in the early 1980s. He first gained exposure through his appearance in Kathryn Bigelow’s debut film The Loveless (1981) and in Streets of Fire (1984) by Walter Hill. In William Friedkin’s police thriller To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) he played ruthless counterfeiter Eric “Ric” Masters, a villain who will stop at nothing in order to neutralise his adversaries.

In 1986, Dafoe’s portrayal of Sergeant Elias Grodin in Oliver Stone’s anti-war drama Platoon would expose him to a wider audience. He received his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in the break-through film. Two years later, Martin Scorsese successfully recruited him to fill the leading role as Jesus Christ in his hotly debated literary adaptation The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Still in the same year, Dafoe co-starred alongside Gene Hackman in director Alan Parker’s civil-rights-era drama Mississippi Burning (1988). In the film, Dafoe plays a young FBI agent fighting against racism and the Ku Klux Klan.