At the 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent (in Belgium), American actress Theresa Russell was presented this evening with a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award. With this prize, the festival honors guests who have made an exceptional contribution to the art of cinema. Russell received the award in recognition of her distinctive and versatile career, which spans both Hollywood and the independent cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.

Theresa Russell was born in 1957 in San Diego, California. At the age of nineteen, she made her screen debut in Elia Kazan’s “The Last Tycoon” (1976), appearing alongside Robert De Niro, Jeanne Moreau, and Robert Mitchum. Her natural presence and ability to embody layered, and often complex characters, quickly established her as one of the most remarkable young actresses of her generation.

In the decades that followed, Russell built a career that defied convention. She consistently chose challenging roles that balanced sensuality and vulnerability, intellect and emotion. She shone in “Black Widow” (1987, directed by Bob Rafelson), “Whore” (1991, Ken Russell), “Kafka” (1991, Steven Soderbergh), and “Wild Things” (1998, John McNaughton)—films that each reaffirmed her range and courage. She also remained a steady presence in independent productions and television series, including “The Believer” (2001, Henry Bean) and “Jolene” (2008, Dan Ireland), where she appeared opposite young and emerging talents such as Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain.

Alongside her singular trajectory in American film history, Russell also gained international recognition through her close collaboration with her then-husband, British director Nicolas Roeg. Together they made six films, including the controversial and visionary “Bad Timing” (1980), the spiritual epic “Eureka” (1983), and the psychosexual drama “Track 29” (1988). While Roeg is often celebrated as a visionary filmmaker, it is increasingly acknowledged how profoundly Russell helped shape and enrich his oeuvre with her bold performances.

She attended the 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent in multiple capacities. She served as President of the International Jury and was honored as the central guest of the festival’s Classics program dedicated to Nicolas Roeg, “Fractured Visions: A Nicolas Roeg Retrospective.” Featuring fourteen films, Classics curator Patrick Duynslaegher presented a retrospective that highlighted how the creative cross-pollination between director and actress resulted in some of the most intense and groundbreaking films in British cinema. Following the screening of “Bad Timing” at Kinepolis 6, Duynslaegher engaged Russell in an Actor’s Talk about her career, life, and work. The evening concluded with her being celebrated with the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award.

An interview with Theresa Russell, conducted at the Film Fest Gent, will soon be available.

The Joseph Plateau Honorary Award is presented to festival guests who have made an exceptional contribution to the art of filmmaking. The prize is a replica of Professor Joseph Plateau’s phenakistiscope, an invention that laid the groundwork for the moving image.

Previous recipients of the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award are actors, actresses, film directors, producers, composers and other notable international film professionals: 1991 André Delvaux, Michel Legrand 1992 Alain Cuny, Carl Davis 1993 Robert Altman, Philippe Sarde 1994 John Hurt, Jean-Claude Petit, Henri Storck 1995 James Earl Jones, Gabrielle Claes 1997 Gina Lollobrigida, Sydney Pollack, David Puttnam 1998 Peter Ustinov, Robert Wise, Alain Resnais, Shohei Imamura, Elmer Bernstein 1999 Sandra Bullock, Stanley Donen, Irwin Winkler, Peter Greenaway, Bonnie Arnold 2000 Morgan Freeman, Hans Zimmer 2001 Roger Corman, Richard Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, Roy E. Disney, Bertrand Tavernier, Gabriel Yared 2002 Juliette Binoche, Jeanne Moreau, Jean Reno, Blair Underwood, Hanna Schygulla, Roland Verhavert, Jan Van Raemdonck 2003 Tony Curtis 2004 Richard Attenborough 2005 Mike Leigh, Alan Ladd Jr., Nand Buyl, Zbigniew Preisner 2006 Agnès Varda 2007 Kathleen Turner, Danny Glover, Walter Hill 2008 Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald 2009 Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Claude Miller 2010 Catherine Deneuve, Paul Greengrass, Dirk Brossé 2011 Isabelle Huppert, Norman Jewison, Chris Lomme, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne 2012 Emmanuelle Riva, Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani 2013 Paul Schrader, István Szabó, Jacques Debrulle 2015 Christopher Plummer, Alan Parker 2016 Ken Loach, Jeremy Thomas 2017 Greta Scacchi, Johan Leysen, Pierre Drouot 2018 Dirk Impens 2019 Geraldine Chaplin, Agustí Villaronga 2020 Viggo Mortensen 2021 Harry Kümel, Andrea Arnold 2022 Raoul Servais, Céline Sciamma 2023 Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Terence Davies 2024 Emily Watson, Michel Khleifi 2025 Theresa Russell