Johnny Depp accepts film festival award while posing behind bars

Johnny Depp recently won an award from the Polish EnergaCamerimage film festival and announced the win by posing behind prison bars.

In the image, Depp held the award while smiling behind bars. He did not collect the award in person due to the ongoing pandemic and instead accepted the honour in the Bahamas.

The film festival, which is dedicated to the art of cinematrography and its creators, awarded Depp for his unique visual sensitivity. His film, Minamata, closed the 28th edition of the event.

EnergaCamerimage wrote, in a prior post announcing Depp’s award, that he is “one of the most versatile performers of modern cinema.”

"Johnny Depp earned himself a reputation of a true acting chameleon capable of handling basically everything that the screenwriters, directors, costume designers, make-up artists and others threw at him," the statement read.

They also praised Depp for his many “memorable performances that shaped several generations of moviegoers.”

Depp said he was “honoured and humbled” to receive the award and noted that he has worked with many great cinematographers over the course of his illustrious career.

“The relationship between the actor and the cinematographer is a pivotal one. You might even say the most important, considering cinema, more than anything, is a visual medium," he wrote in a letter to the festival.

"I have always been someone who needs to not know what is coming next. To capture those unrehearsed moments – those moments of beautiful mistake – those same moments that make cinema, and life, magic."

The 57-year-old actor posing behind camera bars is a tongue-in-cheek poke at the lost of the libel case against The Sun newspaper over the publication’s 2018 story describing him as a “wife-beater” during his marriage to Amber Heard.

While the presiding judge Mr Justice Nicol rules that The Sun’s article was “substantially true,” lawyers for Depp described the decision “as perverse as it is bewildering.” They have vowed to appeal the decision.