James Gray Told His Wife He Would Get an Award at Locarno. She Reminded Him to Take Out the Trash
Filmmaker James Gray received the Career Leopard, a lifetime achievement honour, from the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, presented ahead of a screening of his new film Paper Tiger. The award recognises Gray's body of work, but he used his acceptance remarks to note the contrast between the prestige of the honour and the mundanity of home life, recalling that when he told his wife about the prize, she simply asked him to take out the rubbish.
Speaking to a crowd of thousands in the festival's Piazza Grande, which holds 8,000 people, Gray admitted to feeling nervous and compared the reception to being in the Beatles, joking that he is usually behind the camera rather than addressing an audience directly. Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, is loosely autobiographical, drawing on Gray's own upbringing and the neighbourhood where he grew up. He closed by insisting the lifetime award did not mean his career was winding down, saying he still has "many good films" left to make.
- James Gray received Locarno's Career Leopard lifetime achievement award.
- His wife responded to the news by asking him to take out the bins.
- His new autobiographical film Paper Tiger screened at the festival.
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James Gray, an American film director known for character-driven dramas such as The Immigrant and Armageddon Time, has received the Career Leopard from the Locarno Film Festival, a major honour recognising his overall body of work. Locarno is a long-running film festival held in Switzerland each summer, known for its Piazza Grande, an open-air square where thousands of people watch screenings together.
The award was given ahead of the premiere of Gray's new film, Paper Tiger, which stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller and is said to draw loosely on his own childhood. Lifetime achievement prizes like this one are typically presented to established filmmakers as a mark of career-long recognition, often alongside the launch of their latest work.