The Venice Film Festival said it will give its lifetime achievement award this year to Oscar-winning director and actor Roberto Benigni.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement is to be awarded at the 78th edition of the world’s oldest film festival, scheduled for September 1-11 on the Lido.
Benigni wrote, directed and starred in La Vita E Bella, (Life Is Beautiful), which won the Oscar for best foreign language film, best actor and best musical score in 1999.
In announcing the decision, Venice director Alberto Barbera called Benigni “one of the most extraordinary comedy actors in an admittedly rich gallery of Italian performers”, and noted his more recent solo performances reading Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Benigni, perhaps best remembered for climbing on top of the audience chair when he won the Oscar, was more restrained on Thursday.
“My heart is full of joy and gratitude,” he said in a statement.
Venice was one of the few international film festivals to be held fully in-person last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, using reserved seating arrangements and extra screenings to ensure socially distanced viewing.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here