Isabelle Huppert, the French actor who is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award at the Berlin International Film Festival 2022, will attend the event virtually as she tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.
The ceremony presenting her with the Honorary Golden Bear award will take place as planned on Tuesday and she will accept it virtually from France. “Isabelle Huppert will tune in live from Paris to assist the ceremony and to speak to her audience,” said the official press release from Berlinale.
Huppert’s latest film, À propos de Joan (About Joan), will be screened as a Berlinale Special Gala after the ceremony.
Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said in a statement, “Considering that Isabelle Huppert is not feeling sick and she is willing to support the festival, we have decided to go on with the award ceremony. As she cannot come, we will send our love and admiration to her home in Paris. We look forward to having her in Berlin another time.”
Huppert, who is the winner of multiple awards over the course of her career, tested positive for Covid-19 in Paris and informed the festival organisers.
As she is not in a position to travel to the festival, the event Berlinale Homage: In Conversation with Isabelle Huppert stands cancelled.
Meanwhile, several other attendees have tested positive for the virus since the festival kickstarted on Thursday. Berlinale’s test buses, available for both the accredited guests as well as the audience, conducted around 2,700 tests and 54 of them have tested positive, as of Sunday. Of these, eight cases were reported from the film teams present at the festival.
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In a statement to Deadline, the festival noted that it was tracking all modes of contact and identifying possible risk situations. “We are still living in the midst of a pandemic and obviously positive tests are still a reality in our daily lives. It is good to hear that the figures of positive tests are really low. With 2% of positive tests, the figures are less than the average percentage of positive tests around Berlin,” the statement read.
Berlinale 2022 is being organised as an in-person event with mandatory vaccination and masking requirements. In addition, participants who have not received their booster shot or recovered from Covid-19 are required to produce a negative test result as well. Further, to limit crowding, screenings are being limited to 50% capacity.