Film festivals to honor John Schlesinger, Isaac Julien

The Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema will honor out director John Schlesinger with its Artistic Achievement Award with an April 8 screening of Midnight Cowboy, the film that garnered him an Academy Award. A festival statement notes that Schlesinger "has challenged audiences with compelling films that realistically portray honest human relationships and life experiences. He had excelled in virtually every genre, from the social critique of Darling and sexual exploration of Sunday Bloody Sunday to the thrills of Marathon Man and wicked satire of Cold Comfort Farm." Also announced Wednesday was the news that Isaac Julien would receive the 2002 Frameline Award. The award will be presented on Saturday, May 4, at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at the opening of "The Film Art of Isaac Julien," the first major collection of Julien's media installation work. A retrospective of Julien's films, including The Attendant, Looking for Langston, and Young Soul Rebels, will screen during the 26th annual San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, June 13-30. Considered by many to be the preeminent black gay filmmaker of this generation, Julien is currently teaching film theory as a visiting professor in the African-American Studies Program at Harvard University. Previous recipients of the Frameline Award include Barbara Hammer, Marlon Riggs, Stanley Kwan, Christine Vachon, Marcus Hu, and Peter Adair.