A personal souvenir from Coppola

This year’s Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Francis Ford Coppola. The legendary filmmaker will visit the Stockholm International Film Festival on November 9-20 to meet the Swedish audience for the first time and personally receive the prestigious Bronze Horse. 

- In my lifetime, I've never had the pleasure to visit Sweden and its capital Stockholm - which I've always wanted, Coppola says before his Stockholm trip, when he in addition to receiving the Bronze Horse will meet the Swedish audience during a special showing of one of his most loved films.

- When the Stockholm International Film Festival was founded 27 years ago, we made a list of directors we would love to host. The first name on it was Francis Ford Coppola. To welcome the Godfather of cinema to Stockholm is a dream coming true, says Git Scheynius, Festival Director of Stockholm International Film Festival.

Motivation: This year’s Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award winner is one of the greatest directors of our time. His films encapsulate their own era with perfect authenticity, yet remain equally relevant today. From Don Corleone’s epic and corrupt family enterprise, through the dangers of the surveillance society to the apocalyptic wars of the west, his prophetic images and powerful stories have defined cinema for generations. Forever will they provide a common language and inspiration for cinephiles all over the world.

The 2016 Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Francis Ford Coppola.

Francis Ford Coppola, born on April 7, 1939, is one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers of our time. In 1970 he was awarded his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Patton. The Godfather from 1972 won three Academy Awards and the sequel, The Godfather: Part II, won six. It also brought Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer. In total he has been awarded five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and two Palme d’Or through films such as The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979) and the final part in his mafia trilogy, The Godfather: Part III (1990). As a writer, director, producer, and technological pioneer, Francis Coppola has created a body of work that has helped to shape contemporary American cinema.

The Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to honor and acknowledge a longstanding career and an outstanding achievement in cinema. The prestigious award, in the shape of a 7,3kg (16 lb) Bronze Horse is the heaviest film award in the world. It is also a paraphrase on a national design icon, the Swedish Dala horse, and was created by artist Fredrik Swärd. The prize has previously been awarded to film makers such as David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Lauren Bacall, Wong Kar-wai and Claire Denis.