Isabelle Huppert, Berlinale Golden Bear Honoree, to Skip Festival After COVID Diagnosis

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International EditorIsabelle Huppert, this year’s recipient of the Berlinale’s Honorary Golden Bear, has pulled out of attending the festival after testing positive for COVID in Paris.The festival confirmed the French star’s absence on Monday night.“Unfortunately, today Isabelle Huppert has been tested positive for the coronavirus in Paris and therefore she will not be able to attend the Berlin International Film Festival,” reads a statement from the Berlinale.“While informing the festival, she emphasized that she feels very dedicated to the Berlinale and wants to participate in any possible way also to support her latest film ‘À Propos de Joan.'”Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian explained that because Huppert “doesn’t feel sick,” the festival will go ahead with its planned ceremony on Tuesday honoring the “Elle” actor with its lifetime achievement award.

Huppert join in via a live link from Paris. The ceremony will be followed by a screening of “À Propos de Joan.” However, a planned “Berlinale Homage: In Conversation with Isabelle Huppert” event, organized under the Berlinale Talents program, has been canceled.Huppert has a longstanding relationship with Berlin, and has starred in seven competition films to date.She was first a guest in Berlin with Jacques Doillon’s “La vengeance d’une femme” before appearing in Francois Ozon’s “8 Femmes” as an unprepossessing woman who emerges in the end as a confident beauty.

The ensemble cast was awarded a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic accomplishment. Meanwhile, in “L’Avenir” she plays a woman re-discovering her freedom as a philosophy teacher in a failing marriage.