Nuri Bilge Ceylan to Receive the Directors’ Fortnight Carrosse d’Or Prize at Cannes

Nuri Bilge Ceylan Receive the Directors' — Getty Images

PARIS — Turkey will be on the menu at the Cannes Film Festival this year when Nuri Bilge Ceylan receives the Directors’ Fortnight Carrosse d’Or prize. The Turkish director will be honored with this year’s “Golden Coach” award May 17 during the sidebar’s opening ceremony. Earlier that day, Ceylan’s 1999 film Clouds of May will screen for festgoers followed by a master class with the filmmaker.

Ceylan is accustomed to festival honors. His Once Upon a Time in Anatolia had a fairy-tale ending at last year’s fest, taking home the Jury Prize. The director’s was first in Cannes with short film Cocoon in 1995, then was back with his third feature Distant, which earned him the 2003 Jury Prize along with a shared best actor award for stars Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak. He was back in 2006 with Climates, which won the FIPRESCI Movie Critics Award, then was named best director for 2008’s Three Monkeys. Ceylan also served as jury member in 2009.

The lifetime achievement award was created in 2002 by the SRF, France’s Society of Film Directors, and has been awarded to legendary filmmakers including Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, David Cronenberg and last year’s recipient Jafar Panahi. The prize is voted upon by the French Directors Guild and sponsored by fest partner Canal Plus.

The Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, which runs May 17-27, recently unveiled its 2012 poster designed by Michel Welfringer, based on a photograph by Jean-Luc Cramatte.