We should really stop calling him a slacker.
Richard Linklater, a director who has defined independent filmmaking for more than 30 years, is getting his support from the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), which this year will honor him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Zurich announced on Thursday that Linklater will receive the 2026 Golden Eye Award for Career Achievement at this year’s ZFF (September 24-October 4). The Texas director will attend the festival and participate in a workshop about his work. Zurich will also show a retrospective of his films.
“Richard Linklater is one of the most visionary and formative directors of American independent cinema,” says Christian Jungen, CEO of ZFF. “With natural dialogue and scenes that seem taken straight from life, he holds a mirror up to our times and regularly brings out the best in his actors. He’s also my favorite film director of all time, Before sunriseThanks to him I met my wife. I am therefore particularly pleased to welcome him to Zurich and to share with our audience the films that have influenced me for many years.
“I’m truly honored to receive the Career Achievement Award from the Zurich Film Festival,” says Linklater. “When Christian and I met at the Golden Globe Awards, I mentioned that I’d always wanted to attend one day and now seems like the right time. I’m thrilled that this award is the occasion that got me there, and I’m very much looking forward to celebrating with the European audience that has meant so much to me throughout my career.”
Linklater was at the forefront of the independent film movement of the 1990s. His advantage as a sophomore The lazy one (1990), a no-budget, starless comedy shot on 16mm, was optioned by Orion from Sundance and grossed $1 million.
And he hasn’t stopped since then. Over the past three decades, Linklater has moved seamlessly between arthouse films and mainstream films, as he is at home with broad crowd-pleasers – Dazed and confused (1993), School of rock (2003), Hitman (2023) – As with experimental drama, from the periscope animation Waking life (2001) and Darkly scanner (2006) to the next drama boyhood (2014), filmed in sections over the course of 11 years.
side by side boyhoodwhich was nominated for six Oscars, winning Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette, Linklater is arguably best known for before trilogy — Before sunrise (1995), Before sunset (2004), Before midnight (2013) – A trilogy of romantic dramas starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Each is set over the course of a single day (or night) and follows the same couple through a relationship spanning two decades. both of them Before sunset and Before midnight It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Last year, Linklater released both Blue moon – a period chamber piece starring Hawke as musical legend Lorenz Hart – and Mysterious novela French-language black-and-white drama about the making of Jean-Luc Godard gasped (1960). As always, he has several projects in the pipeline, including an adaptation of a Stephen Sondheim musical Cheerfully we roll along Starring Paul Mescal, set to be filmed over the course of 20 years, the heralded biopic of 20th-century con man John Brinkley and Texas stand-up comedy legend Bill Hicks.
