Before the release of Paper Tiger, James Gray will be honored at Locarno

Still shunned at Cannes, the American director will receive an award for his entire brilliant career.

It was written. Back in competition for the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival, with Paper TigerJames Gray left the Croisette empty-handed for the sixth time. His Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Little Odessa (in 1994), his very first feature film, remains the only major award won by the American filmmaker.

The director of The Yards will be able to catch up this summer. The Locarno Festival announced that he would receive the Pardo alla Carriera for his entire career. He will be awarded this honorary prize on August 9, in Switzerland, where Paper Tiger will be presented after the ceremony. Two other major films will also be screened during the festival: The Night belongs to us (2007) and Two Lovers (2008).

“Since winning the Silver Lion for Little Odessa at the age of 25, James Gray has forged a singular career marked, with his piercing realism, by his portrayal of the Russian-Jewish community of New York“, writes Locarno.

“Films like The Yards, We Belong to the Night, Two Lovers, and The Immigrant have cemented Gray’s place among the most distinctive voices in American cinema. A director as interested in the criminal world, described in meticulous detail, as in family portraits, often located near the Brighton Beach of his childhood and shaped by a dialogue between classic American cinema and European auteur cinema.“

The 79th edition of the Locarno Festival will be held from August 5 to 15. Last year it was Jackie Chan who was honored on the banks of Lake Maggiore.

Paper Tiger, starring Miles Teller, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, will be released in France on November 25.