George Clooney will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
The Ocean’s Eleven star, who has close ties to Italy and the festival, will be presented with the honorary Golden Lion in recognition of his career achievements as an actor, director and producer.
“I’ve had so many extraordinary moments in Venice. This festival is without question my favourite and to be given the Golden Lion is a tremendous honour,” he said in a statement, before quipping: “It also probably means I’m old, but I’ll take it.”
Clooney, 65, is a regular fixture at the Italian festival, and this year will mark his third consecutive year in attendance following the 2024 and 2025 premieres of his films Wolfs and Jay Kelly, respectively. Other Clooney projects have debuted at Venice over the decades including 1998’s Out of Sight and 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck.
His connection to Italy doesn’t stop there, as he has a home in the Lake Como region and got married to his wife Amal in Venice in 2014.
“In his triple capacity as actor, director, and producer, George Clooney is a complete and charismatic artist, impassioned and original, who has transformed a deep vocation into one of the most luminous parabolas of contemporary film,” Festival director Alberto Barbera added in a statement, before praising Clooney’s “disarming spontaneity” and “undeniable charm” on screen.
“A perfect combination of the star glamour of days gone by, remarkable professionalism, and modern sensitivity, the actor has crossed the genres with rare versatility: war movies with Three Kings and Syriana; thrillers with Michael Clayton; sophisticated comedies with Ocean’s Eleven and O Brother Where Art Thou?; science fiction with Gravity and Solaris; and bittersweet comedies with The Descendants, Up In the Air, and Jay Kelly,” he continued. “In each one of these movies, he calibrated his register while remaining true to himself: ironic and melancholy, fascinating and reflective, brilliant and capable of unexpected depth.”
Barbera added that Clooney’s directorial efforts also reflect “his other vocation, a commitment to social and humanitarian causes, making him a figure of absolute prominence in the universe of show business today”.
This year’s Venice Film Festival runs between 2 and 12 September.
