Barbra Streisand to Receive FSLC's 40th Annual Chaplin Award

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that Academy Award-winner Barbra Streisand, the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film, YENTL, will be honored at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award Gala held at Lincoln Center on the evening of Monday, April 22, 2013. The event will be attended by a host of notable guests and celebrities honoring the international film legend's groundbreaking career and will feature film and interview clips culminating in the presentation of The Chaplin Award.

"The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award," said Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Board Chairman. "She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed YENTL was such a milestone film. We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute."

The Film Society's Annual Gala began in 1972 and honored Charles Chaplin - who returned to the US from exile to accept the commendation. Since then, the award has been renamed for Chaplin, and has honored many of the film industry's most notable talents, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Laurence Olivier, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas, Sidney Poitier, and last year, Catherine Deneuve.

"Barbra Streisand is an American icon whose groundbreaking work significantly opened the doors for other female filmmakers. She has been an inspiration to me and so many of my peers," said FSLC Executive Director Rose Kuo. "She is the perfect recipient for our 40th anniversary because, like our award's namesake, she is a world class, multi-faceted film artist."

The only artist ever to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France's Legion d'honneur as well as the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, Streisand is also the first female film director to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.

She won Academy Awards for both Best Actress for her iconic portrayal of Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL (1968) and Best Original Song for composing "Evergreen" for A STAR IS BORN (1976). She also was nominated for Best Actress for THE WAY WE WERE (1973). The three films she directed (YENTL, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES) received 14 Oscar nominations.

With YENTL (1983), Streisand's first film as a director, she became the first woman ever credited as to the writer, director, producer, and star in a major motion picture. The film earned five Oscar nominations and also brought her Golden Globes for both Best Director and Best Picture.

THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991) her next directorial feature, was the first motion picture directed by its female star to receive a Best Director nomination from the Directors Guild of America (and third woman to ever receive a feature film direction nomination) as well as seven Academy Award nominations. Streisand also produced the film in addition to directing and Starring in it.

Her Academy Award for "Evergreen" established Streisand as the first female composer to win that award. She was nominated again in 1997 as co-composer of "I Finally Found Someone," based on her love theme for THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996). Streisand directed, produced and starred in the film which went on to achieve two Oscar nominations and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for Lauren Bacall.

Streisand was born April 24th in Brooklyn to Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father, who passed away when Barbra was 15 months old, was a highly respected teacher and scholar.

An honor student at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, the teenage Streisand won a singing contest at a small Manhattan club and soon after developed a devout and growing following as a singer at the clubs. Not long after that she was attracting music industry attention at such spots as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. She then signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1962, and her debut album quickly became the nation's top-selling record by a female vocalist.

Following her award-winning stage debut performance in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale," she was signed to play the great comedienne Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of "Funny Girl." When the curtain came down at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 26, 1964, the star and the show were major hits. Her performance won her a second Tony nomination.

Few movie debuts have been as auspicious as Streisand's in Columbia Pictures' FUNNY GIRL. In addition to winning the 1968 Academy Award for this performance, she won the Golden Globe and was named Star of the Year by The National Association of Theatre Owners.

After appearing in the films HELLO, DOLLY! (1969) and ON A CLEAR DAY, YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (1970), she starred in the non-musical comedy THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT (1970). 1972 brought another resounding comedy hit, WHAT'S UP DOC?, followed by UP THE SANDBOX, one of the first American films to deal with the growing women's movement. It was the premiere picture for Streisand's own production company, Barwood Films.

THE WAY WE WERE (1973) brought Streisand her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her first feature film producing effort, A STAR IS BORN (1976) won six Golden Globes. The soundtrack album topped the charts and has been certified quadruple-platinum.

Streisand made her directorial debut with the highly acclaimed, YENTL (1983). The film received five Academy Award nominations, and she received Golden Globe Awards both as Best Director and as producer of the Best Picture (musical or comedy) of 1983. The 11 Golden Globes (plus the Cecil B. DeMille Award) she has received from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association throughout her career are the most achieved by any entertainment artist. In January 2000 she received that organization's coveted Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.

After a break from feature films following her performance in 1987's NUTS, Streisand returned to the director's chair for THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991). In 1996 she directed, produced and starred in THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996).

Then, in 2004, Streisand made a celebrated return to film acting (her first performance on film since THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES) in MEET THE FOCKERS (2004) which teamed her with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. It quickly became the highest grossing live-action comedy film ever, the first (and only to date) to earn more that a half billion dollars. The DVD had similar success, selling three million copies in its first 24 hours. She is currently Starring in The Guilt Trip opposite Seth Rogen.

Streisand is married to director/actor, James Brolin.

For ticketing and additional information, go to filmlinc.com/gala.

FILM SOCIETY OF Lincoln CENTER
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Robert Koehler, Year Round Program Director, works to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Among its yearly programming of film festivals, film series and special events, the Film Society presents two film festivals in particular that annually attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, led by Program Director Kent Jones, which just celebrated its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three Decades has given an annual award-now named "The Chaplin Award"-to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Sidney Poitier. The Film Society presents its year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational and transmedia programs and specialty film releases at the famous Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stonehenge Partners, Stella Artois, The National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.