Earlier this year she could be found sleeping in a glass box in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art but last night Tilda Swinton (pictured above with Chief Film Curator Raj Roy) was saluted on the MoMA stage. Honored at the Museum's annual Film Benefit, MoMA effectively threw the Scottish actress a glitzy bash for her 53rd birthday yesterday.

Wes Anderson and Ralph Fiennes, director and co-star of her upcoming film, Grand Budapest Hotel (opener at the Berlinale next year) chaired the event with her music video doppleganger David Bowie and famed fashion folks Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour.

“I started making films because I'm a film nerd,” Swinton told the crowd during a program saluting her work on screen, “I find comrades in filmmakers, curators, critics, and every film audience I've ever met.”

Filmmakers Bong Joon-Ho (director of Swinton's upcoming Snowpiercer), Isaac Julien and Sofia Coppola were among those on hand for last night's cocktail party and dinner at the Manhattan Museum. Past recipients of the MoMA tribute are directors Pedro Almodóvar, Kathryn Bigelow, Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann and Quentin Tarantino.

Photo by Scott Rudd