President Michael D. Higgins presents John Ford Award to Martin Scorsese
Date: Sun 26th Feb, 2017 | 15:26
"I am honoured to have been asked to present the John Ford Award of the Irish Film and Television Academy to the great Martin Scorsese.
For over 50 years he has delivered, and stretched, the art form of the image that is film, and in doing so he has made a unique contribution towards recognising and releasing the humanity that the arts make possible.
How timely this award is, bestowed on a provocateur of the possibilities of film, by a young, energetic Irish film community that is receiving recognition for its courage and excellence. How timely, too, for us to be reminded that what art makes possible is the emancipation of our sensibilities from any acceptance of the inevitability of a weary indifference to suffering.
There is for me in Martin Scorsese’s films a recognition that our humanity is lodged in a shared community of vulnerabilities and that art, and film within it, is on the side of a fully conscious life.
For his inclusive vision, for his gaze not averted, it is right that Martin Scorsese be honoured. The Irish film community has chosen well.
His half century of film craft gives us reason to see how the image presented in the form that is film encourages us to believe in the future, and that the endless possibilities of our humanity, if not yet realised, are ever more important, and in dark times even more than the flickering times of light.
It is a pleasure to present the John Ford Award of the Irish Film and Television Academy to maestro Martin Scorsese.
Beir Beannacht.”