Mel Gibson, the star and director of the Oscar-winning Braveheart, will attend the fifth annual Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) awards ceremony in Dublin tomorrow week, when he will be presented with the academy's Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema award.
A historical epic set in Scotland, Braveheartwas filmed primarily in Ireland and featured many Irish actors and crew members, along with members of the Defence Forces serving as extras. It received five Oscars at the 1996 ceremony, including best picture and best director for Gibson.
"The academy holds Mr Gibson's film achievements in the highest regard," Ifta chief executive Áine Moriarty said yesterday. "His drive, vision and determination have inspired so many young Irish filmmakers over the past three decades, who have followed his creative journey in film-making, both in front of and behind the camera."
Born in New York, Gibson (52) moved with his family to Australia when he was 11. His mother, Anne Reilly, from Co Longford, named him Mel Columcille Gibson after two Irish saints. He made his international breakthrough with the action-adventure Mad Max(1979), which spawned two sequels.
Gibson has starred in more than 40 feature films, among them Gallipoli, Hamlet, What Women Want, The Million Dollar Hotel(scripted by U2 vocalist Bono) and the four Lethal Weaponfilms. As a director, he has made four feature films, including The Passion of the Christ, which he financed with his own money and which became one of the most profitable productions in cinema history.
In 2006 he was in the news when he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, and he pleaded no contest. He was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for a year and to pay $1,200 (€827) in fines and penalties.
Among the international actors who will attend the Ifta ceremony will be Bo Derek, who came to fame in 10(1979), John Corbett from TV series Sex and the City, Kevin Dillon from TV series Entourage, and Mary McDonnell, who received Oscar nominations for Dances With Wolvesand Passion Fish.
Kings, a drama dealing with the troubled lives of Irish emigrants who went to work in London in the 1970s, dominates the Ifta nominations with 14, followed by Garage, starring Pat Shortt, which has 11.
The awards will be presented at the Gaiety theatre in Dublin and will be shown on RTÉ television later next Sunday night.