John Turturro is set to receive the Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival, which kicks off later this month.
The Emmy award-winning actor-writer-director will be feted for his performance in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, written and directed by Noah Segan. Turturro will touch down in Zurich to accept the award in person on September 26 and will also participate in a Zurich Film Festival Masters session on September 27.
In The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, Turturro stars as Harry, a seasoned pickpocket whose carefully controlled life is thrown into turmoil when a job goes wrong, setting off a tense chain of events that unfolds over the course of 36 hours. Set against the streets of New York, the film combines the momentum and suspense of a crime thriller with a character-driven story about a man confronting the choices that have shaped his life.
Turturro’s career spans more than four decades, working with a range of filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Nanni Moretti and Pedro Almodóvar. His breakthrough roles in Lee’s films Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever firmly established him as a distinctive actor of his generation.
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Turturro has been a frequent collaborator with the Coen brothers, appearing in films such as Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski, in which he created the iconic character Jesus Quintana. For his lead performance in Barton Fink, he won the Best Actor Award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and the David di Donatello Award.
Further credits include Francesco Rosi’s The Truce, Redford’s Quiz Show, Scorsese’s The Color of Money and Di Niro’s The Good Shepherd as well as Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Matt Reeves The Batman, Mr. Deeds, Anger Management and Transformers He later reprised his role as Quintana in The Jesus Rolls, which he wrote, directed and starred in.
Turturro received the Camera D’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Mac, his directorial debut. His other films as a writer and director include Illuminata, Romance & Cigarettes, Passione and Fading Gigolo.
His TV work has seen him earn an Emmy for his guest appearance on Monk and he was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance as criminal attorney John Stone in HBO’s The Night Of. Further TV credits include The Plot Against America, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Severance, the latter of which he received Primetime Emmy nominations for both seasons.
Yesterday, ZFF announced that it would also be honoring Zurich-born actress Elisabeth Baume-Schneider with a Golden Eye Award, making her the youngest actress to receive the award. Baume-Schneider is featured in two films at this year’s festival – Eurotrash and animated film De Rägebogefisch.
The 22nd Zurich Film Festival takes place September 24 – October 4, 2026.
