Vanessa Redgrave Awarded Venice Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement

British actress Vanessa Redgrave will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 75^th Venice International Film Festival (August 29 – September 8).

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia upon the recommendation of festival Director Alberto Barbera. Director David Cronenberg will receive the same award at the festival.

Born into a well-known thespian family, the acclaimed stage and screen actress is a six-time Oscar nominee, winning in 1977 for her performance in Julia. She won Venice’s Volpi Cup in 1994 for Little Odessa and can also count a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe among her many accolades.

Among her most recent works, in 2018 the prolific actress performed in The Aspern Papers by Julian Landais, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Joely Richardson; Mrs Lowry & Son by Adrian Noble, with Timothy Spall; and Georgetown by Christoph Waltz, with Annette Bening. In 2017, she directed and starred in Sea Sorrow with Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson and she performed at the Young Vic Theatre in The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez, produced by Sonia Friedman and directed by Stephen Daldry.

Redgrave, 81, declared, “I am astonished and especially delighted to hear that I will be awarded by the Venice Film Festival for a life’s work in film. Last summer I was filming in Venice in The Aspern Papers. Many, many years ago I filmed La Vacanza in the marshes of the Veneto. My character spoke every word in the Venetian dialect. I bet I am the only non-Italian actress to act an entire role in Venetian dialect! Thank you a million dear festival!“

Barbera added, “Unanimously considered one of today’s best actresses, Redgrave’s sensitive, infinitely faceted performances ideally render complex and often controversial characters. Gifted with a natural elegance, innate seductive power, and extraordinary talent, she can nonchalantly pass from European art house cinema to lavish Hollywood productions, from the stage to TV sets, each time offering top-quality results.

“In the sixty years of her professional activity, her performances have displayed authoritativeness and total control over the roles she plays, a boundless and highly sophisticated generosity, and a healthy dose of the courage and fighting spirit which are a hallmark of her compassionate, artistic nature”.