Description
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme, adapted from a Thomas Harris novel. It stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
The Silence of the Lambs premiered in 1991 at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear, while Demme received the Silver Bear for Best Director. It became the third and most recent film to win Academy Awards in all the major five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Silence of the Lambs is regularly cited by critics, film directors and audiences as one of the greatest and most influential films. In 2018, Empire ranked it 48th on their list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. The American Film Institute ranked it the fifth-greatest and most influential thriller film and Starling and Lecter were ranked among the greatest film heroines and villains. The film is considered “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2011.
