Juliette Binoche wins Zurich Film Festival accolade

Juliette Binoche is to be honoured at the 16th annual Zurich Film Festival, where she will receive the Golden Icon Award, the festival's most prestigious prize.

"I'm very touched to be honored with the Golden Icon Award, but above all it's the films and the directors who made them that will be honored through me," Binoche declared in a statement acknowledging the award, which has never been bestowed on a French actress before.

Deadline has reported that Zurich Artistic Director Christian Jungen praised the 56-year-old actress, exalting: "Binoche is an extremely versatile actress who chooses her roles with great care and embodies her characters with such depth, both in dramas and comedies."

The Swiss festival, which runs from 24 September to 4 October, will screen Binoche's latest film, La Bonne Epouse (How to Be a Good Wife), a comedy-drama set in 1968 in which she runs a housekeeping school in Alsace.

Binoche will attend the festival to receive the award on 30 September, and then discuss her work at a separate event the following day.

In her statement, she remarked: "I was impressed by the dynamism of the festival when I came in 2014 to meet the public," explaining that: "Meeting people who are passionate about other people and cultures has always made me move forward, because with each new film that's what determines me: meeting new worlds..."

In previous years, the Golden Icon Award been given to such luminaries as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hugh Jackman, Hugh Grant, Judi Dench. Last year's winner was Cate Blanchett.