Martin McDonagh will receive the Zurich Film Festival's "A Tribute To…" Award at the festival's 22nd edition this September, accepting the prize in person during a gala premiere of his new film Wild Horse Nine (Deadline).

The Zurich gala follows the film's world premiere in Venice, giving McDonagh's latest a two-festival launch across the European autumn circuit. The Zurich Film Festival runs from September 24 to October 4.

Wild Horse Nine is set shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup and follows two CIA agents, Chris and Lee — played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell — who travel from Santiago to Easter Island. The cast also includes Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey (Deadline).

McDonagh is a London-born filmmaker and playwright whose films — In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Banshees of Inisherin — have made him one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema. He won an Academy Award for his 2004 short film Six Shooter (Deadline).

Christian Jungen, the Zurich Film Festival's CEO, oversees a programme that has grown into an early autumn fixture on the festival calendar — a marketplace where films launched in Venice or Toronto land before European audiences and buyers. The "A Tribute To…" Award has previously gone to directors including Oliver Stone, Michael Haneke, Wim Wenders, Paolo Sorrentino, Claire Denis, Noah Baumbach, Edward Berger, Olivier Assayas, Maïwenn, and Luca Guadagnino (Deadline).

For McDonagh, the honour arrives alongside what looks to be a shift in register. His best-known films trade in dark comedy and intimate, character-driven conflict — two hitmen hiding in Belgium, a grieving mother confronting a small town, two friends falling out on a remote Irish island. Wild Horse Nine moves into political territory, grafting his signature ensemble style onto a historical flashpoint.

Malkovich and Rockwell are no strangers to McDonagh's world. Rockwell won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2018, and Malkovich's presence signals a cast that leans, as ever, on performers who can carry sharp dialogue and uneasy silences in equal measure.

The Zurich gala will mark the film's second public screening. After Venice's world premiere, the Zurich stop gives European audiences an early look before the film moves into wider release.