In the Limelight: Tilda Swinton

Her film debut in Caravaggio in 1986 was the first of seven critically acclaimed collaborations with director Derek Jarman over a period of ten years. The fiercely talented Scottish actress, Tilda Swinton began her career as a leading lady of European art cinema, working also with directors like John Maybury and Sally Potter and earning recognition for her dazzling and complex lead performance in the Academy Award-nominated Orlando (1992).

Hollywood too picked up on her commanding on-screen presence and since 1997, she has successfully moved between the deep-left art house and quality Hollywood blockbusters. The thriller The Deep End (2001) earned her a number of critic‘s awards and her first Golden Globe nomination, her 2008 Oscar decorated performance in the legal thriller Michael Clayton and her iconic White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008), as well as the recent Burn After Reading are only a few examples of her stunning performances which have cemented her place as one of cinema‘s most outstanding women. In 2008, Swinton wrote and co-produced a remarkable film portrait of Jarman – Derek – directed by Isaac Julien and presented at the 2008 Berlinale Panorama. In the same year, she founded, cocurated and produced a film festival in her hometown Nairn, Scotland: The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams.

Jury president of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, Tilda Swinton reflects on the defining moments in her illustrious career, her extraordinary work in art and experimental projects and her effortless switching between large Hollywood productions and European art house films.