British Director Sam Mendes to receive the Stockholm Visionary Award 2022

Stockholm Visionary Award 2022 is awarded to a director who has his roots within the theater and took the world of cinema by storm and won the Oscar for his directorial debut, thereby writing himself into film history. With ease he moves between the theater world and major Hollywood productions, which gives him a unique versatility and elusive depth. With a sharp gaze, masterful craftsmanship and lyrical cinematic language, he captivates the audience. This year's Stockholm Visionary Award is presented to Sam Mendes

EMPIRE OF LIGHT is a moving drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times. Set in and around a faded old cinema in an English costal town in the early 1980s, it follows Hilary (Colman) a cinema manager struggling with her mental health and Stephen (Ward), a new employee who longs to escape this provincial town in which he faces daily adversity. Both Hilary and Stephen find a sense of belonging through their unlikely and tender relationship and come to experience the healing power of music, cinema and community

EMPIRE OF LIGHT also reunites Mendes with Academy Award winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917, Skyfall).

Sam Mendes founded and ran the Donmar Warehouse in London for ten years. He was the founding director of Neal Street Productions and The Bridge Project. His work has been seen at the National Theatre, RSC, Royal Court, Old Vic, Young Vic, BAM, the West End and on Broadway. Films include  American Beauty,  Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, Skyfall, Spectre,  1917 and most recently Empire of Light. Awards include the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture and three other Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Tony Awards, five Olivier Awards, the Olivier Special Award, three Evening Standard Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards, the PGA award, the Jason Robards Award, and the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize. He has also won the Director’s Guild Award for lifetime achievement. He is an Honorary Fellow of the National Film and Television School, and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was made a CBE in 2000 and knighted in 2020 for services to drama.

The Stockholm Visionary Awards was established in 2004 and the Bronze Horse Film Award weights 7.3 kilos and is thus the world’s heaven’s film award. Previous winners include Joachim Trier (2021), Celine Sciamma (2019), Roy Andersson (2014) Jacques Audiard (2012), Wong Kar-Wai (2008) and Wes Anderson (2007)