Honorary Dragon Award to Michael Winterbottom

2012 years Honorary Dragon Award has been awarded Michael Winterbottom. The prize was previously handed over just before his Master Class at Lagerhuset in Gothenburg. Winterbottom says he is honored to join in Charlie Kaufman's footsteps who received last year's Honorary Dragon Award. The Master Class was led by the festivals artistic director Marit Kapla.

When Michael Winterbottom made his feature film Welcome to Sarajevo, 1997, he chose to actually film on location, in the battle-torn city of Sarajevo. This was just months after the fighting ended in the city and it added a sense of unsettling realism to the film. Welcome to Sarajevo was eventually nominated for a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other films by Winterbottom include the acclaimed Wonderland (1999) and 24 Hour Party People (2002), about Factory Records and the Manchester music scene. His latest feature,Trishna, is a modern adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of d'Urbervilles and is screened at the festival.