J.Mekas with the award. Photo courtesy Lietuvos Rytas.
The Lithuanian-born avant-garde film maker Jonas Mekas has been awarded the highest possible Austrian award in the arts
and sciences - the Austrian Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Honour Decoration for Science and Art). The award
was personally presented to the 85-year old Jonas Mekas by the Austrian President Heinz Fischer at Hofburg Palace in
Vienna on April 1, 2008. Only 200 such awards have been given since 1955. Previous award recipients have included such
illustrious figures as the conductor Herbert von Karajan, the philosopher Karl Popper, the composer Krzysztof Penderecki
and other very distinguished personages.
On the occasion of the award, the 1972 Jonas Mekas’ film "Reminiscences of a journey to Lithuania" was shown in the
Vienna Film Museum and it created such a great deal of interest, that two hours before the start of the film a huge crowd
of movie-goers had already gathered.
Further information: www.lrytas.lt 07/04/08
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