This year's Berlin International Film
Festival Teddy Award winner is Joe Dallesandro, the hunky sex kitten
made famous in countless camp films made by Andy Warhol in
the late 1960s and 70s.
Dallesandro, 60, is expected to appear
at the 59th annual film festival also known as Berlinale.
The Teddy is a special award for
lifetime achievement in gay and lesbian cinema.
“Dallesandro was not only the most
beautiful man in his media generation, but also put his erotic appeal
out to consciously be objectified,” Wieland Speck, who heads the
selection committee, said in a statement.
“He has this physical appearance you
never get tired of watching. This is true for the moving pictures as
well as photographs – and for men and for women.”
Iconic cult film director John Waters
said Dallesandro “forever changed male sexuality on the screen.”
Warhol discovered Dallesandro in New
York City's 1960s gay scene where he was playing bit parts in gay
porn films and working the streets as a male escort.
Dallesandro went on to be immortalized
by Warhol in photographs, pop art and campy movies such as the Paul
Morrissey directed, Warhol produced trilogy Flesh, Trash
and Heat, and by Lou Reed in his classic song Walk on the
Wild Side.
Dallesandro identifies as bisexual and
has been married three times. He currently lives in Hollywood.
Last year, the golden Teddy went to
Scottish actress Tilda Swinton for her work with late British
director Derek Jarman.
The Berlinale will also screen two
films featuring Dallesandro: Little Joe, director Nicole
Haeusser's new documentary on the hustler turned pop icon, and Tapage
Nocture, Catherine Breillat's 1979 take on the subject.
The Teddy Award will be handed out at a
February 13 ceremony. Berlinale, the world's third largest film
festival, begins February 5.