Jodie Foster To Receive 2025 Radcliffe Medal

Academy Award winning actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster will be awarded the 2025 Radcliffe Medal, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study announced Thursday.

The Radcliffe Award — the highest award granted by the Radcliffe Institute — is awarded every year to “an individual who embodies Radcliffe’s commitment to excellence and impact,” according to the Institute’s website.

Past awardees include Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, philanthropist Melinda French Gates, and Former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

Foster — well-known for her award winning performance in 1991 film Silence of the Lambs — has had a nearly 6 decade long career, winning two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe in 2024 for her performance in the HBO series True Detective: Night Country.

Foster has also pursued advocacy work for the safety of young queer individuals worldwide, including as one of the first major donors to the Academy Winning short film Trevor. In 2007, after the film’s creators launched a crisis prevention service for LGBT youth following the movie’s success, Foster made the largest donation in the organization's history.

Prior to the award ceremony, Foster will also participate in a keynote conversation with Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Foster will receive her award from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute on Radcliffe Day 2025 on May 9.

Correction: January 23, 2025

Due to incorrect information provided by the Radcliffe Institute, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated Radcliffe Day will be held May 8, 2025. In fact, it will be held May 9.

—Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at neeraja.kumar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @neerajasrikumar.