Jury president and French actress Isabelle Huppert attends a news conference at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2009. The 62nd Cannes film festival opens on Wednesday and 20 films compete for the prestigious Palme d'Or which will be awarded on May 24. [Xinhua/Reuters]

The famous French film and theater actress Isabelle Huppert accepted the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Sunday.

Huppert was awarded the prize before the screening of the film Villa Amalia by French director Benoit Jacquot in the festival's main competition. In Villa Amalia she played the main role.

56-year-old Huppert has appeared in over 80 films and held more than 30 acting awards. She is highly acclaimed by critics for her playing the parts of complicated, often ambiguous characters.

In 1978 she won the best actress award at the Cannes International Film Festival for the role of a young murderess in the film Violette Noziere. In 2001 she repeated her success in Cannes with the main role in The Pianist directed by Michael Haneke and based on the controversial novel by Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek.

Huppert chaired the Cannes festival's grand jury this year.

There are 24 French films in total which will be screened at the festival.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2009)