“First I wanted to be a cowboy. Then an astronaut. And then a baseball player. But as the fourth of four children, I got attention by showing off,” said Tim Robbins at the start of his KVIFF Talk, adding that he had already played an astronaut and a baseball player. “I still haven’t done a cowboy film, though.”

The actor, filmmaker and, as of Friday, the holder of a Crystal Globe Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, then, prompted by reporter Gregory Ellwood, reminisced about his move from New York to California, where he studied directing and screenwriting and about his early days as an actor. During the 90-minute conversation, Robbins talked bout filming Howard the Duck and Bull Durham, his directorial debut Bob Roberts and the Oscar-winning film Dead Man Walking, which in the USA helped start a debate about abolishing the death penalty. The success of the aforementioned drama allowed him to shoot his pet project Cradle Will Rock. Robbins also personally introduced his best known picture The Shawshank Redemption at the Outdoor Cinema. “People couldn’t remember it. They called it Shinkshank, Shengay… I only realised that it had become something special a few years later when IMDb ranked it as the most popular film ever. It even surpassed The Godfather!”