Telluride Film Festival Silver Medallion

History of the Silver Medallion

The first Silver Medallions were awarded in 1974 at the 1st Telluride Film Festival. They are made of pure silver and the design has never changed, featuring the emblematic "SHOW" logo on their face. The presentation of the medallion is preceded by a clip reel, full feature and/or on stage interview. Traditionally, three Silver Medallions are given out each year, with a few exceptions where numerous people from a specific category were paid the honor. Since 1995, a fourth Silver Medallions has been awarded to a hero of cinema, a filmmaker, historian, critic or organization dedicated to the celebration and preservation of film as an art.

Honorees

1. 1974 - Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola, Leni Riefenstahl
2. 1975 - Henry King, Werner Herzog, Jack Nicholson
3. 1976 - Chuck Jones, King Kong, King Vidor
4. 1977 - Michael Powell, Agnès Varda, Benjamin Carré
5. 1978 - Hal Roach, Sterling Hayden, Czech New Wave (Jaromil Jireš, Pavel Juráček, Jan Němec and Ivan Passer)
6. 1979 - Abel Gance, Robert Wise, Klaus Kinski
7. 1980 - Robert Altman, Maurice Pialat, Karl Struss
8. 1981 - The Character Actor (John Carradine, Elisha Cook, Jr., Margaret Hamilton and Woody Strode), Carlos Diegues, Dušan Makavejev
9. 1982 - Joel McCrea, Pierre Braunberger, Athol Fugard
10. 1983 - Luis Trenker, Andrei Tarkovsky, Richard Widmark
11. 1984 - Henry Hathaway, Andrzej Wajda, Janet Leigh
12. 1985 - Emilio Fernández, Hanna Schygulla, Alexandre Trauner
13. 1986 - Alexander Mackendrick, Jiří Menzel, Isabelle Huppert
14. 1987 - Don Siegel, Stephen Frears, Tengiz Abuladze
15. 1988 - Pedro Almodóvar, Cab Calloway, The Xi'an Studio
16. 1989 - Peter Greenaway, Dennis Potter, Shōhei Imamura
17. 1990 - Gérard Depardieu, John Berry, Clint Eastwood
18. 1991 - Nature's Filmmakers (Peter Jones, Marion Zunz and Paul Atkins), Jodie Foster, Sven Nykvist
19. 1992 - Elmer Bernstein, Cy Endfield, Harvey Keitel
20. 1993 - Ken Loach, John Alton, Jennifer Jason Leigh
21. 1994 - Judy Davis, Ken Burns, Harriet Andersson
22. 1995 - John Schlesinger, Zhang Yimou, The Surrealists (Jan Švankmajer, Guy Maddin and Brothers Quay), Andrew Sarris
23. 1996 - Shirley MacLaine, Mike Leigh, Alain Cavalier, Roger Mayer
24. 1997 - Horton Foote, Neil Jordan, Alexander Sokurov, Milos Stehlik
25. 1998 - Meryl Streep, Vittorio Storaro, Susumu Hani, Stanley Kauffmann
26. 1999 - Catherine Deneuve, David Lynch, Philip Glass, ARENA
27. 2000 - Ang Lee, Stellan Skarsgård, Im Kwon-taek, Serge Silberman
28. 2001 - Catherine Breillat, Om Puri, Ken Russell, HBO
29. 2002 - Peter O'Toole, Paul Schrader, D. A. Pennebaker, Positif
30. 2003 - Peter Brook, Toni Collette, Krzysztof Zanussi, Ted Turner
31. 2004 - Laura Linney, Jean-Claude Carrière, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Fred Roos
32. 2005 - Mickey Rooney, The Dardennes, Charlotte Rampling, The Criterion Collection & Janus Films
33. 2006 - Walter Murch, Penélope Cruz, Rolf de Heer, David Thomson
34. 2007 - Daniel Day-Lewis, Michel Legrand, Shyam Benegal, Leonard Maltin
35. 2008 - David Fincher, Jean Simmons, Jan Troell
36. 2009 - Anouk Aimée, Viggo Mortensen, Margarethe von Trotta, Serge Bromberg
37. 2010 - Claudia Cardinale, Colin Firth, Peter Weir, UCLA Film and Television Archive
38. 2011 - George Clooney, Pierre Étaix, Tilda Swinton, Sight & Sound
39. 2012 - Roger Corman, Marion Cotillard, Mads Mikkelsen, C. Chapin Cutler Jr. and Boston Light & Sound
40. 2013 - Robert Redford, The Coen Brothers, Mohammad Rasoulof, T Bone Burnett
41. 2014 - Volker Schlöndorff, Hilary Swank
42. 2015 - Danny Boyle, Adam Curtis, Rooney Mara