Conversation with Religion and the Arts Awardee Martin Scorsese

The American Academy of Religion is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2017 AAR Religion and the Arts Award: acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Here, Scorsese speaks about the role of religion in his films with writer Paul Elie.

With a career spanning more than fifty years, Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the most important directors in American cinema. For scholars of religion, Scorsese’s filmography holds particular significance in its frequent meditations on faith, apostasy, and morality—from allegorical references in works like Cape Fear (1991) to the more overt engagement of religion in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997).

Critics have hailed Scorsese’s most recent release, Silence (2016), as a culmination of themes that have influenced his work from the very beginning. Like so many of his films, Silence brings religion into public consciousness and conversation, serving as only the latest example in a long and storied career meriting this recognition by the Religion and the Arts Award Jury. Both Kundun and Silence will be screened at the Annual Meeting in Boston.

Established in 2007, the AAR Religion and the Arts Award is presented annually to an artist, performer, critic, curator, or scholar who has made a recent significant contribution to the understanding of the relations among the arts and religion, both for the academy and for a broader public.