Athena Film Festival: Jodie Foster to Receive Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award

Jodie Foster will receive the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Athena Film Festival.

The two-time Oscar winner joins previously announced honorees HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins, writer-director-producer Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees, Beyond the Lights) and Oscar-winning producer and Mandalay Pictures president Cathy Schulman.

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Past recipients of the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award include Sherry Lansing and Gale Anne Hurd.

“It is truly an honor to receive the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award at the Athena Film Festival, which celebrates the power, creativity and leadership of women in the entertainment industry,” Foster said in a statement. “These are values I share deeply with the festival and I am thrilled to be recognized amongst my colleagues and peers.”

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Foster, who recently directed episodes of House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, is about to begin filming Money Monster, starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O’Connell.

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The Athena Film Festival, presented by Barnard College’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies, is designed to celebrate and honor extraordinary women in the film industry and will take place on Barnard’s Morningside Heights campus from Feb. 5-8, 2015. The festival highlights movies demonstrating women’s leadership and features screenings, master classes and Q&A panels, with the full lineup set to be released later this month. Foster will be honored on Saturday, Feb. 7.

“We are privileged to celebrate the career of such an inspirational and talented woman this year at the Athena Film Festival,” Melissa Silverstein, Athena Film Festival co-founder and artistic director, added. “Jodie Foster is a trailblazer in the industry, and since the beginning of her career has broken down barriers for female filmmakers and actresses. We look forward to celebrating her amongst our other 2015 awardees.”

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Festival co-founder and director of the Athena Center, Kathryn Kolbert, added: “We are so honored to present Jodie Foster with this year’s Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a unique force, greatly accomplished on both sides of the camera.”