French actress Catherine Deneuve is to get the career achievement prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival running from August 31 to September 10 at the Venice Lido, organizers said Wednesday.
Deneuve, 78, an icon of French cinema, will receive her Golden Lion on the opening night of the festival, the world’s oldest film fest. Deneuve, in accepting, said, “It is a joy to receive this prestigious award at the Venice Festival, which I love and have known for a long time, since ‘Belle de Jour’ by Luis Buñuel received the Golden Lion in its day. It is also an honor to be chosen for this tribute at the Film Festival that has accompanied me so often for so many movies. Thank you, best regards”.
Festival Director Alberto Barbera declared, “An impressive number of movies, most of which are major international successes. An equally remarkable number of awards she has received at the world’s most important festivals, plus an Oscar nomination for best actress in a leading role, a rare privilege for an artist who is not American. A succession of artistic partnerships with some of Europe’s top directors and actors: Roger Vadim, Jacques Demy, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, Roman Polanski, Marco Ferreri, Marcello Mastroianni, and Gérard Depardieu.
An indisputable talent at the service of a gift for acting, plus a sophisticated and rare beauty, attributes which have helped make her the very symbol of French cinema, a timeless diva and a true icon of the silver screen. From one of the key figures of the Nouvelle Vague and a privileged example of a concept of style that is associated with French fashion, Catherine Deneuve has come to embody the essence of the universally recognized diva, taking her place as one of the greatest actresses in film history.
For these reasons, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award that the Venice International Film Festival will present her on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the first edition of the Venetian festival assumes particular importance, after the Golden Lion she won for Belle de jour by Luis Buñuel in 1967 and the Volpi Cup for best actress she received for her performance in Place Vendôme by Nicole Garcia in 1998.”
