Photo: Russell James

Film Society of Lincoln Center is thrilled to announce that we will be honoring two-time Academy Award winner Barbra Streisand at this year's landmark 40th annual Chaplin Award Gala on Monday, April 22, 2013!

The annual Chaplin Award Gala is a major fundraising event for the Film Society and throughout its history it has honored legendary filmmakers and actors like Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, and, of course, Charlie Chaplin himself at the inaugural edition back in 1972. (See full list of honorees below.)

“The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award,” said Film Society's Board Chairman Ann Tenenbaum. “She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed Yentl was the first full-length feature directed, acted, written and produced by an American woman. We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute.”

Barbra Streisand began her career as a nightclub singer in New York City, where she laid the groundwork for her crossover into theater, recording, television, and, eventually, the movies.

It was for her debut film performance, reprising her role in Broadway hit Funny Girl in William Wyler's screen adaptation in 1968, that Streisand won her first Academy Award, for Best Actress. She followed up that incredible success with two more movie musicals: Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly! in 1969 and Vincente Minelli's On A Clear Day You Can See Forever in 1970.


Barbra Streisand wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Yentl (1983). Photo: MGM/UA / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

From there, Streisand went on to star in over a dozen films in the 70s and 80s, including such classics as The Owl and the Pussycat (1970); A Star Is Born (1976), for which she won her second Oscar, this one for Best Original Song; and Yentl (1983). The latter was also Streisand's directorial debut, and won her Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Actress. She went on to direct two more features, The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and the three films earned a total of 14 Oscar nominations.

After a nearly decade-long hiatus from the silver screen, Streisand returned in the smash hit Meet the Fockers in 2004, which  quickly became the highest grossing live-action comedy film ever, and she has continued to deliver celebrated comedic performances since then, most recently opposite Seth Rogen in 2012's The Guilt Trip.

In addition to her two Oscars wins and three additional nominations, Streisand's shelves also boast a whopping eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award—that's right, she's got an EGOT!—as well as  a DGA Award, over a dozen Golden Globes, the National Medal of Arts, a Peabody Award, AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first Kennedy Center Honors bestowed upon a female director. Those must be some sturdy shelves!

We could not be more excited that Barbra Streisand, a true legend of song, stage and screen, will be coming to Film Society to receive the 40th annual Charlie Chaplin Award and we hope to see all you funny girls, boys, women and men there!

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Past Film Society of Lincoln Center Chaplin Award Honorees:
2012 Catherine Deneuve
2011 Sidney Poitier
2010 Michael Douglas
2009 Tom Hanks
2008 Meryl Streep
2007 Diane Keaton
2006 Jessica Lange
2005 Dustin Hoffman
2004 Michael Caine
2003 Susan Sarandon
2002 Francis Ford Coppola
2001 Jane Fonda
2000 Al Pacino
1999 Mike Nichols
1998 Martin Scorsese
1997 Sean Connery
1996 Clint Eastwood
1995 Shirley MacLaine
1994 Robert Altman
1993 Jack Lemmon
1992 Gregory Peck
1991 Audrey Hepburn
1990 James Stewart
1989 Bette Davis
1988 Yves Montand
1987 Alec Guinness
1986 Elizabeth Taylor
1985 Federico Fellini
1984 Claudette Colbert
1983 Laurence Olivier
1982 Billy Wilder
1981 Barbara Stanwyck
1980 John Huston
1979 Bob Hope
1978 George Cukor
1975 Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman
1974 Alfred Hitchcock
1973 Fred Astaire
1972 Charles Chaplin