ROME, July 15: Hollywood star Ellen Burstyn will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, the organisers announced on Tuesday.
The 93-year-old won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and was nominated on five other occasions. Recent roles include the mother of the first lady in House of Cards.
Accepting the offer, Burstyn said: “Wow! I not only get to travel to one of my topmost favourite cities in the whole world. I get to return home carrying a Golden Lion in my arms! The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Venice Film Festival! I feel so honoured – so happy – so filled with gratitude! Wow indeed!”
Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera described Burstyn as “an actress of rare intensity and truth,” adding that she had starred in around 150 films.
Among the film directors she has worked with are Alain Resnais in Providence, Paul Schrader in Hardcore, Bob Rafelson in The King of Marvin Gardens, Paul Mazursky in Alex in Wonderland, Darren Aronofsky in Requiem for a Dream and Christopher Nolan in Interstellar.
The organisers said the Golden Lion would be awarded to Burstyn on the occasion of the screening of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact, dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, to mark the centenary of her birth.
The festival, seen as one of the world’s most prestigious alongside Cannes and Berlin, runs September 2-12.
— BERNAMA-dpa