Film great Clint Eastwood has been honoured with the inaugural John Ford Award from the newly established John Ford Ireland, an annual symposium celebrating the life and work of the legendary Irish-American filmmaker.
Áine Moriarty, Chief Executive of the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA), and Michael Collins, Irish Ambassador to the US, presented the award to Eastwood at a reception in Burbank, California, which was attended by members of the Ford family, including the director's grandson, author Dan Ford.
Eastwood said of the honour: "This is a great privilege for me because any kind of association with John Ford is most directors' dream as he was certainly a pioneer of American filmmaking and I grew up on his films.
"His Westerns had a great influence on me, as I think they had on everybody. When I worked with Sergio Leone years ago in Italy, his favourite director was John Ford and he spoke very openly about that influence.
"I want to thank everybody who is here from the Irish Academy, the John Ford family and thank you to John Ford Ireland."
John Ford Ireland has been established by the Irish Film & Television Academy in association with the John Ford Estate and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
The inaugural symposium will take place in June 2012 in Dublin and will include screenings, exhibitions, discussions, masterclasses, lectures and public interviews, with more details to be released in the new year.
A film school and scholarship programme will also be established in year two.
