Rochester, N.Y., May 25, 2023 — The George Eastman Museum honored Jodie Foster with the George Eastman Award Thursday evening in front of a packed crowd. The George Eastman Award, established in 1955, is the museum’s highest honor in motion pictures and recognizes Foster’s distinguished contributions to the art of film.
The award ceremony was held in the Dryden Theatre, where 500 people were in attendance to view a video compilation of her work, preceded by a heartwarming career retrospective by Peter Bagrov, Curator-In-Charge of the Moving Image Department, and followed by Foster’s gracious acceptance speech and an on-stage conversation with Bruce Barnes, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director.
Earlier today, Foster and her partner, photographer Alex Hedison, toured the Eastman Museum, including George Eastman’s historic mansion, and had the opportunity to view the museum’s exhibitions, selections from its extensive photography collections, and its technology, film, and photography vaults.
Foster also introduced a special screening of The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which she announced was one of her favorite films, to a sold-out crowd in the Dryden Theatre last night.
In accepting the Eastman Award honor, she has joined the company of film legends such as Lauren Bacall, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Cecil B. DeMille, Michael Douglas, Michael Keaton, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Mary Pickford, Martin Scorsese, James Stewart, Meryl Streep, Gloria Swanson, and most recently, Julia Roberts. The George Eastman Award was established in 1955 as the first retrospective award to honor film work of enduring artistic value.
One of the most critically acclaimed actresses of her generation, Foster has created a wide range of unforgettable and inspiring characters for more than 45 years. Among many accolades, she has received two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role and two other Academy Award nominations, as well as four Golden Globe awards from among eleven nominations. In 2012, she was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment, the fourth-youngest among the august recipients of that tribute.
About the George Eastman Award
The George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of cinema was established by the Eastman Museum in 1955 to raise awareness of the imperative of the film preservation. The first two presentations of the award in 1955 and 1957, known as the Festival of Film Artists, were a tribute to the legends of the silent film era (1915–1930). Since then, the George Eastman Award has honored a range of actors, directors, and cinematographers.
About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program and, its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program
(a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. For more information, visit eastman.org.
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ATTN. MEDIA: Approved images and video from tonight’s award ceremony are available for download at the following link: https://eastmanmuseum.box.com/v/jodiefostergeaward2023