The Munich International Film Festival will hand its honorary CineMerit Award to Gillian Anderson during its upcoming edition, which runs from June 27 to July 6.
Anderson will be handed the awards during a ceremony at the Deutsches Theater, where the German premiere of her latest film, The Salt Path, will take place.
“Gillian Anderson’s incredible versatility never ceases to amaze us: an FBI agent, a sex therapist, an Iron Lady,” Munich festival directors Julia Weigl and Christoph Gröner said in a statement.
“The Salt Path, adapted from a best-selling novel, reveals a whole new side to her, which we will all get to explore at the Deutsches Theater. By honoring Gillian Anderson, we are saluting a person who embodies much more than an impressive career. She represents strong womanhood and smart decisions, and is a model of principles and integrity.”
Anderson’s breakthrough came in the 1990s, when she took the role of FBI Agent Dana Scully in the television series The X-Files. From 2012 to 2015, she starred as Hannibal Lecter’s psychiatrist in the NBC series Hannibal. In 2020, she portrayed Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, which earned her several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She is perhaps best known now for her role as the free-spirited sex therapist, Dr. Jean Milburn, in Netflix’s Sex Education.
Her latest project, The Salt Path, is directed by Marianne Elliott from a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The film is a drama about a married couple who lose everything and defy fate by choosing to follow a difficult path.
Alongside her acting career, Anderson is also an author, producer, and voice artist. She compiled the book Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous, produced the television series The Fall, and narrated documentaries such as The Widowmaker. She was the first woman to direct and write an episode of The X-Files.
