French honour for Sundance Kid

Robert Redford in The Old Man & The Gun Photo: Fox Searchlight

The Academy of the French Oscars, the Césars, will award their honorary career achievement accolade this year to Robert Redford (in the wake of last year’s recipient Penelope Cruz) at the 44th awards ceremony on 22 February.

Robert Redford at Karlovy Vary Film Festival Photo: Richard Mowe

Making the announcement in Paris Alain Terzian, the president of the Academy, said of Redford: “As an iconic actor, exceptional director, enthusiastic producer and founder of the Sundance Film Festival with a global reputation for promoting independent cinema, Redford has left his mark on each and every one of his activities.”

Terzian noted that Redford, 81, brought the same integrity and grace to roles as varied as Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnson, Three Days of the Condor, Out of Africa, The Great Gatsby and The Horse Whisperer and flagged also his Oscar win as best director for Ordinary People. Redford has said that his current big screen role in The Old Man & The Gun, directed by David Lowery, will be the final role of his 60-year career.

His quote on the subject of retirement was: “Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting and I’ll move towards retirement after this ‘cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21.” He has not ruled out continuing his directorial activities. In 2002 he received an honorary Oscar.

Terzian added: “It’s a huge honour for us to be able to pay tribute to an artist and a man who for more than 50 years has symbolised the legendary reputation of American cinema.”