Meryl Streep to receive 2012 Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear
Meryl Streep, a likely Best Actress Academy Award contender for Phyllida Lloyd’s Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, will receive an Honorary Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival next February 14. As part of the ceremony, The Iron Lady will be screened at the Berlinale Palast.
If Streep does get – the all but inevitable – Oscar nod for The Iron Lady, that’ll be her seventeenth nomination and fourteenth in the Best Actress category. She has so far won two Oscars: Best Supporting Actress for Robert Benton’s father-love drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Best Actress for Alan J. Pakula’s Holocaust drama Sophie’s Choice (1982).
In 2003, Streep shared with fellow The Hours costars Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Best Actress. Six years later, Streep was the recipient of the Berlinale Camera.
Among Streep’s other films are Fred Zinnemann’s Julia (1977), starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, and in which Streep has a small supporting role; Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979), as Allen’s lesbian ex-wife; Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, as an actress romancing Jeremy Irons; and Mike Nichols’ Silkwood (1983), playing nuclear plant whistleblower Karen Silkwood.
Also: Sydney Pollack’s Best Picture Oscar winner Out of Africa (1985), with Robert Redford; Mike Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge (1990), as a Carrie Fisher-like Hollywood daughter battling Shirley MacLaine’s Debbie Reynolds-like mother; and Robert Zemeckis’ visual-effects-laden comedy Death Becomes Her, costarring Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.
Plus Clint Eastwood’s romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995); Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002); David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006); Phyllida Lloyd’s musical comedy Mamma Mia! (2008), a surprising blockbuster; and Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia (2009), as cook Julia Child.
As part of the Berlinale’s Meryl Streep homage, the festival will screen the following Streep movies:
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
By Robert Benton
With Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Justin HenrySophie’s Choice (1982)
By Alan J. Pakula
With Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Günther Maria HalmerOut of Africa (1985)
Director: Sidney Pollack
Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria BrandauerThe Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood, Victor Slezak.A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
Director: Robert Altman.
Cast: Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, John C. Reilly.The Iron Lady (United Kingdom, 2011)
Director: Phyllida Lloyd.
Cast: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Roger Allam.“Meryl Streep Honorary Golden Bear” notes
Meryl Streep The Iron Lady image: The Weinstein Company.
*last modified in May 2025.