Italian director Luca Guadagnino will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at this year's Venice Film Festival. The festival is honoring Guadagnino as a figure who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.
According to Variety, the award presentation will take place on September 8. The ceremony will be followed by a screening of Joie de Vivre, Guadagnino's seven-hour documentary dedicated to legendary director Bernardo Bertolucci.
Guadagnino said in a statement that describing it as an honour to receive the award might sound like a rhetorical figure of speech, but that it was the absolute truth for many reasons. He added that being honoured for one's art or life as a filmmaker was an ambition no creator could take for granted, particularly when joining the group of directors who had previously received the distinction and to whom he owed so much for his development.
The director reiterated how great an honour it was to receive the award, expressing his gratitude to festival artistic director Alberto Barbera and La Biennale di Venezia. The Hollywood Reporter reported the festival announcement on August 8.
Tribute to creative freedom
Barbera praised Guadagnino, describing him as a creator who managed to transform his curiosity into a form of creative freedom. Barbera noted that Guadagnino has experimented across different film genres while maintaining a consistent and recognizable voice, without losing his deep Italian identity in how he depicts faces, landscapes and history.
The festival director added that Guadagnino's cinematic work remains vibrant and unafraid of taking risks. The Venice Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, is held annually in Italy and stands as the world's oldest film festival.
Recent projects and upcoming releases
At the previous edition of the festival, Guadagnino presented the film After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. He also recently wrapped production on Artificial, a biographical film centered on OpenAI founder Sam Altman, played by Garfield.
The Artificial project was dropped by Amazon MGM after the studio concluded a commercial deal with technology company OpenAI. Distribution rights were subsequently acquired by Neon, which is currently preparing the promotional campaign for the film ahead of the upcoming awards season.
Guadagnino is an internationally recognized Italian filmmaker known for his distinct visual style and character-driven storytelling. His documentary subject, Bernardo Bertolucci, was one of Italy's most celebrated cinematic figures, known worldwide for directing landmark films including The Last Emperor.
