Darren Aronofsky, the director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, will receive Camerimage’s Award for Director at its 34th festival in Toruń, Poland, running from 7 to 14 November.
Announced on 29 October, the honour recognises a filmmaker whose characters rarely get an easy ride. A dancer chasing perfection, a wrestler struggling outside the ring and a mathematician searching for hidden patterns all become stories told through the camera as much as the dialogue.
That makes Camerimage, a festival devoted to cinematography, a fitting setting. Aronofsky’s collaboration with cinematographer Matthew Libatique began on his black-and-white debut Pi in 1998 and has continued across much of his career. The festival singled out his use of image, sound and performance to draw viewers into his characters’ fears and desires.
The tribute spans a career that has moved between psychological horror, intimate drama and large-scale spectacle. His latest feature, last year’s Caught Stealing, put Austin Butler at the centre of a darkly comic New York crime thriller. Aronofsky will attend the festival, which brings filmmakers and cinematographers together for screenings, discussions and workshops.
