Gael Garcia Bernal Honored

Hold on to your hearts…….Mexican heartthrob and leading actor Gael Garcia Bernal will be honored this month at the Locarno Film Festival, which is taking place in the picturesque southern Switzerland resort town from August 1 to 11. The actor will be attending the 65th edition of the Festival to receive an Excellence Award Moët & Chandon. The award ceremony will be held on Wednesday, August 8, in the historic open air Piazza Grande, before the screening of his latest film, the Cannes sensation NO by Chilean director Pablo Larraín. As a tribute to García Bernal, the Locarno Festival will also screen two films that are significant in his career: Pedro Almodóvar’s BAD EDUCATION (2004) and Michel Gondry’s THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (2006).

Aside from his acting achievements (in such films as AMORES PERROS, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and BABEL), García Bernal is also a producer and director. In 2007 he directed the feature film DEFICIT and contributed to two other portmanteau films. With Diego Luna and Pablo Cruz, he co-founded the company Canana with the objective of promoting Mexican independent cinema. Every year the Festival’s Excellence Award goes to one or more actors of international stature. Previous recipients have included Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Michel Piccoli, Carmen Maura, Toni Servillo, Chiara Mastroianni, Charlotte Rampling and Isabelle Huppert.

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