roman polanski

Roman Polanski Collects Zurich Film Festival Award Two Years Late

Polanski.

Director Roman Polanski accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival on Tuesday, almost exactly two years after he was first set to receive it. (As you may recall, legal trouble prevented him from attending the 2009 ceremony.) “Better late than never,” he told the crowd, which greeted his appearance onstage with a standing ovation. The festival also saw the premiere of Laurent Bouzereau’s Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, a documentary shot during the eight months Polanski spent under house arrest awaiting Switzerland’s decision on whether or not to extradite him to the U.S. over the 33-year-old rape charge. (They didn’t.) The film, which consists of a long conversation between the director and his friend producer Andrew Braunsberg, includes Polanski’s first public apology to the victim of the assault, Samantha Greimer. Apparently, the director refers to her as “a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press.” Better late than never, indeed! [THR]

Roman Polanski Collects Zurich Film Festival Award Two Years Late