Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep has been chosen to receive the prestigious Coolidge Award in Boston on April 5. The annual event, recognizing a selected
film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema, was launched in 2004. The first film auteur so honored was Chinese director Zhang Yimou in 2004 (HERO, THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, RAISE THE RED LANTERN).

Last year’s honors went to Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, whose long list of cinema masterpieces include APOCALYPSE NOW, THE CONFORMIST, REDS and LAST TANGO IN PARIS.

Meryl Streep will be presented with the Coolidge Award at the famous
Coolidge Corner Theater, a historic arthouse cinema located in Cambridge near famed Harvard University. The celebration will be preceded with a month-long programming at the theater including related seminars and selected screenings from Streep's filmography.

Streep has been lauded as one of the seminal actors of her generation, winning numerous awards and having been nominated for the Academy Award a total of 13 times, surpassing such cinema legends as Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. Streep has won two Oscars, first for her supporting role as Dustin Hoffman’s wife in the Robert Benton film KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) and then for her unforgettable role as a Holocaust survivor in Alan J. Pakula’s SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982).

Other career highlights include THE DEER HUNTER (1978), SILKWOOD (1983), OUT OF AFRICA (1985), ADAPTATION (2001) and THE HOURS (2003). After a period of inactivity, Streep’s career is again on a roll, having won a Television Emmy award last year for her role in the Mike Nichols’ adaptation of the Pulitzer prize winning play ANGELS IN AMERICA, and her upcoming stint as a fashion magazine publisher in the adaptation of the best seller THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.


Sandy Mandelberger
Industry Editor