Berlinale fetes Meryl Streep

StreepBERLIN -- The Berlin Film Festival is honoring Meryl Streep this year with a homage and honorary Golden Bear."We are delighted to be able to award the honorary Golden Bear to such a terrific artist and world star," said Berlinale topper Dieter Kosslick. "Meryl Streep is a brilliant, versatile performer who moves with ease between dramatic and comedic roles."The fest will present Streep with the honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at a Feb. 14 screening of her latest work, Phyllida Lloyd's "The Iron Lady," at the Berlinale Palast.A study of power and the loss of power, the film imagines how Thatcher, at the end of her life, might look back through fragmented memories to weigh-up the personal cost of her decisions.Streep has appeared in more than 40 films, received countless awards and nominations, including 16 Oscar noms, two of which she won, and 18 Golden Globe nominations and seven wins.Streep's international breakthrough came in the late 1970s with the TV series "Holocaust" and Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter." She went on to win Oscars for her performances in Robert Benton's divorce drama "Kramer vs. Kramer" and Alan J. Pakula's "Sophie's Choice," both of which will screen as part of the Berlinale Homage series.Also unspooling will be Sydney Pollack's "Out of Africa," Clint Eastwood's "The Bridges of Madison County" and Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," which premiered in Berlin in 2006.Streep also attended the fest in 1999, when she was awarded the Berlinale Camera, and in 2003, when she shared a Silver Bear with Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman for their performances Stephen Daldry's "The Hours."The Berlinale runs Feb. 9-19. Contact Ed Meza at staff@variety.com