Italian actress Isabella Rossellini will receive the European Contribution to World Cinema Award, a lifetime achievement award, at this year's European Film Awards.
The Italian-American star, daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini, was a successful model, especially for the French cosmetics brand Lancôme, before turning to acting. Her first leading role was in the Taviani brothers' drama The meadow (1979), but his international success was with David Lynch Blue Velvet (1986) in which she played the mysterious and tormented nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens. The performance, in which Rossellini also sang the film's title tune, won her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.
Over the next four decades, Rossellini built a unique career in cinema, spanning big-budget feature films: Robert Zemeckis Death pleases her (1992), by Peter Weir Fearless (1993) — and independent arthouse films, working with Peter Greenaway (The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003)), Guy Maddin (2006) Branded on the brain!), Marjane Satrapi (Chicken with plums (2011)) and Alice Rohrwacher (2023) The chimera). She was nominated for an Emmy for a recurring role on Chicago Hope and appeared in episodes of Alias, 30 Rockand as herself in an episode of Friends (The one with Frank Jr.).
More recently, Rossellini appears as a nosy nun in Edward Berger's much talked about and award-winning film Conclave.
Rossellini got behind the camera for Green PornSeduce me and Momsa series of comedic shorts exploring the sex lives of animals, in which she played everything from an excited firefly to a maternal worm.
In announcing the Lifetime Achievement Award, the European Film Academy said the honor “serves as a reminder of the depth and breadth of [Rossellini’s] talent that continues to shape the landscape of world cinema.”
When Lancôme dropped her as a model when she turned 40, Rossellini launched her own cosmetics brand, Manifesto. Lancôme rehired her in 2018, at age 65, as a spokesperson to “promote inclusivity and fight ageism” in the industry.
Along the way, Rossellini also earned a master's degree in animal behavior and conservation from Hunter College in New York and an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Science at the University of Quebec in Montreal. She runs her own organic farm, Mama Farm, in Brookhaven.
Rossellini will be honored on December 7 at the 37th European Film Awards in Lucerne, Switzerland.