Organizers said Monday that Italian director Liliana Cavani will be awarded a lifetime achievement Golden Lion at the 80th Venice Film Festival this year. The world’s oldest cinema festival takes place from August 30 to September 9 this year.
“I am very happy and grateful to the Biennale di Venezia for this wonderful surprise,” said the 90-year-old film-maker.
Cavani is best known internationally for her controversial 1974 film The Night Porter, starring Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde. Her films have a strong historical element.
She first took part in the festival in 1965 when she won the best documentary prize with Philippe Pétain: Processo a Vichy, but came to prominence after The Night Porter.
Hearing of her career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival Cavani stated that it had been “a beautiful wake-up call” when she awoke in America where she is taking part in a three-day study event dedicated to the 90-year-old director by Princeton University.
The director has just finished her new film “L’Ordine del tempo” based on the novel by physicist Carlo Rovelli and starring Alessandro Gassmann, Claudia Gerini, Valentina Cervi and Richard Sammel, which will most likely premiere at the Venice Film Festival (30 August – 9 September).
Liliana Cavani will also be hosted by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New York City on March 31, 2023 where there will be a roundtable discussion on her films and career..
