Emmy-, Golden Globe- and Tony award-winning actress Glenn Close to be honored at 17th annual Maine International Film Festival

WATERVILLE — The Maine International Film Festival will present its annual “Mid-Life Achievement Award” to Emmy-, Golden Globe- and Tony-award winning actress Glenn Close.

MIFF will present Close with her award on Sunday, July 13, at the Waterville Opera House after a screening of “Albert Nobbs,” the film that earned Close her sixth Academy Award acting nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations. She starred in the title role alongside a distinguished cast that includes Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brendan Gleeson, Brenda Fricker and Janet McTeer. Rodrigo Garcia, for whom Close starred in two previous films, directed. In addition to writing the screenplay with (Man Booker prize-winning novelist) John Banville, Close was also a producer on the film and she composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack nominated song, “Lay Your Head Down.”

Close has recently completed filming on four features: “Low Down,” which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will also be featured at MIFF, for director Jeff Preiss, co-starring John Hawkes and Elle Fanning; “5 to 7,” with Anton Yelchin, Bérénice Marlohe and Frank Langella for writer-director Victor Levin; “Anesthesia” for writer-director Tim Blake Nelson; and the highly-anticipated feature film of Marvel Comics’ “Guardians of the Galaxy,” opening Aug. 1, 2014. She is currently filming “The Great Gilly Hopkins” with Kathy Bates, Julia Stiles and Sophie Nelisse.

Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s “The World According to Garp.” Her performance in the film earned her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for her performances in Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill”; Barry Levinson’s “The Natural”; Adrian Lyne’s smash “Fatal Attraction”; and Stephen Frears’ “Dangerous Liaisons” (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee), which will also screen at MIFF 2014.

Close’s other films include Richard Marquand’s “Jagged Edge”; Barbet Schroeder’s “Reversal of Fortune”; Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet”; István Szabó’s “Meeting Venus”; Ron Howard’s “The Paper”; Stephen Herek’s “101 Dalmatians”; Kevin Lima’s “102 Dalmatians”; Wolfgang Petersen’s “Air Force One”; Rose Troche’s “The Safety of Objects”; Merchant Ivory’s “Le Divorce”; Chris Terrio’s “Heights”; Rodrigo García’s “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” and “Nine Lives”; Lajos Koltai’s “Evening”; and Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune” which will round out the selection of Close’s films to be presented at MIFF 2014.

In 2012, Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed original legal thriller, “Damages.” For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator ‘Patty Hewes,’ Close was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award, a 2010 Emmy Award and won two consecutive Emmys as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” for Damages’ first two seasons. For the show’s 2009 premiere season, she won a Golden Globe Award in addition to the Emmy and received a SAG nomination. She was also nominated for a 2010 Golden Globe and both a 2011 and 2010 SAG Award. Prior to Damages, Close won rave reviews and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Captain Monica Rawling in a season-long story arc on FX’s “The Shield.”

Close will return to Broadway this fall for the first time in 20 years to lead a high-powered cast in “A Delicate Balance,” Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The cast includes John Lithgow, Lindsay Duncan, Martha Plimpton, Bob Balaban and Clare Higgins.

Each year MIFF presents their Mid-Life Achievement Award to an individual who has made significant contributions to the art of cinema. Past honorees include: Keith Carradine (Nashville, Thieves Like Us, McCabe and Mrs. Miller),Thelma Schoonmaker (GoodFellas, Raging Bull, The Departed), Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol, Mystic Pizza), Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde), Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, Badlands), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), John Turturro (Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski) , Ed Harris (Empire Falls, Pollack), Peter Fonda (Easy Rider), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Jos Stelling (Duska), Walter Hill (The Warriors), and Bud Cort (Harold and Maude).

During the 10 days of the festival, MIFF will feature nearly 100 films, representing the best of American and International independent cinema and spotlighting some of Maine and New England’s most innovative filmmakers.

More than just watching movies, audiences also have opportunities to meet and talk with some of the people behind the movies including directors, producers, writers and actors through panel discussions and Q&A sessions, giving festival audiences an incredible chance to hear about the art of film from those on the front-lines.

The full MIFF schedule will be available on the festival’s website (www.miff.org) in mid to late June. Passes start at $85 and are now available for purchase through the website. The Maine International Film Festival is a project of the Maine Film Center, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to enrich, educate and entertain the community through film and art.