Entertainment 31 August 2026

George Clooney takes a career Golden Lion on Wednesday (and Laura Dern does the honours)

The 83rd Venice Film Festival opens on 2 September at the Lido. Clooney is the first of two lifetime achievement Lions this year, and the warm-up screening is a 1967 Italian thriller.

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Every Venice opening ceremony has a moment where somebody walks on stage and explains why the statuette makes sense. This year that person has a name. La Biennale confirmed on Sunday that Laura Dern will give the laudatio for George Clooney on Wednesday 2 September, when he collects his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Clooney is the first of two. The second goes to Ellen Burstyn, still shorthand for the mother in The Exorcist to half the world, and the owner of a stage and television career considerably larger than that one part.

It actually starts on Tuesday

The 83rd edition runs on the Venice Lido from 2 to 12 September, directed again by Alberto Barbera. There is a screening before the official opening, though: on Tuesday 1 September the Sala Darsena shows Tinto Brass’s Col cuore in gola, known in English as Deadly Sweet, a 1967 Italian pop thriller starring Jean-Louis Trintignant. An odd choice, and a deliberate one.

If you can get there, the sidebar programme is arguably better value than the competition. The festival’s masterclasses run at the Match Point Arena from 3 to 9 September, with both lifetime Lions on the bill, Clooney and Burstyn, plus director Chloé Zhao alongside cinematographer Łukasz Żal, Luc Besson and Luca Guadagnino.

Guadagnino picks up something else

Guadagnino is on stage twice. On 8 September he receives the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker 2026 award in the Sala Casinò at 3pm, immediately before the out-of-competition screening of his documentary Joie de vivre.

The main competition has been public since the official selection landed, and at least one title matters to anyone with a Netflix subscription: Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch film premieres there. The Golden Lion for best film is not known until 12 September. Clooney’s is handed over before a single competition screening has run.

By Lucy Bennett

Image: John Bauld / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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