Montreal: Thirty years after the launch of Denis Heroux’s saucy box-office hit Valerie, the film’s producers Andre Link and John Dunning have been named the recipients of this year’s Grand Prix des Ameriques, a career contribution award from the Montreal World Film Festival. The tribute is scheduled for Aug. 31.

The legendary Dunning/Link duo was established back in 1962 with the launch of Cinepix, an integrated production and distribution company which later expanded to include CFP Distribution, today known as Lions Gate Films, a division of Lions Gate Entertainment, a publicly trade company based in Vancouver.

The duo’s filmography includes the earliest films of directors David Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman, George Kaczender and William Fruet, ranging from the smash box-office comedy Meatballs, which pulled in over $50 million in receipts in 1980, to Princes in Exile, a Monte Carlo Television Festival gold winner coproduced with the National Film Board. A new print of Valerie will be screened as part of the Aug. 31 tribute.

WFF runs from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.