SIR Sidney Poitier, the Oscar-winning Bahamian actor, is to have the prestigious Career Achievement Award at the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) named after him, it was announced yesterday.
“There is no person on Earth who is better suited to have the Career Achievement Award named after him,” BIFF founder and executive director Leslie Vanderpool said. “Sir Sidney is one of the finest actors for generations and is, simply put, an icon and a legend.”
Ms Vanderpool and Sydney Tamiia Poitier, one of Sir Sidney’s six daughters and an actress herself, will oversee the granting of the Sir Sidney Poitier Tribute Awards and the BIFF executive director said further information about the award would be revealed soon.
The festival, now in its twelfth year, will be held from December 1 to 4 in Harbour Island and December 5 to 12 in Nassau. It has established itself as an international film festival in the Caribbean, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from The Bahamas and showcasing diverse international films.
The American Film Institute named Sir Sidney, 88, among the greatest male stars of all time. For his film role in The Defiant Ones, Sir Sidney was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award in 1958. Six years later, he was the first black person to win an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Homer Smith in Ralph Nelson’s Lilies of The Field.
Knighted in 1968, Sir Sidney is a respected author, director and “actor’s actor,” with more than 50 films and television shows to his credit. He has starred in some of Hollywood’s most important and biggest films and earned critics’ praise for several commanding performances in leading roles in mainstream films: No Way Out, Blackboard Jungle, The Bedford Incident, A Patch Of Blue, To Sir with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night.
In 2002 Sir Sidney received an honorary tribute from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honour, by President Barack Obama.
From 1995 to 2003, Sir Sidney served as a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company. Proud to represent The Bahamas, Sir Sidney was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan from 2002 to 2007 while being the Ambassador of The Bahamas to UNESCO.
“What makes this addition so momentous is that he is a Bahamian who believes in building future generations of filmmakers while honouring the actors and actresses who broke ground, furthermore, upholding their careers with poise,” Ms Vanderpool said. “Sir Sidney possesses a true love and appreciation for the people of The Bahamas.”
Launched in 2004, BIFF has showcased more than 800 films from 150 countries, many of which subsequently won Academy Awards. Leading celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Debra Messing, Danny Glover, Nicholas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Alan Arkin, Sean Connery, Roger Corman, Daryl Hannah, Sophie Okonedo, Anna Faris, Naomie Harris, Zoe Kravitz, Chaz Ebert are among those who have attended.
BIFF aims to raise the level of filmmaking, participation and education throughout The Bahamas and the world. Ms Vanderpool has taken filmmaking into schools where she has taught all aspects of filmmaking. She is behind concepts such as “Summer Films In The Square” and “Theatre In The Park”.
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