venice lions

Source: Venice Film Festival / SWKit

Liliana Cavani, Tony Leung

The Venice Film Festival will present Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to Liliana Cavani, the Italian director of The Night Porter and Ripley’s Game; and to Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, whose credits include In The Mood For Love and Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Cavani’s Philippe Pétain: Processo a Vichy won the Lion of San Marco for best documentary at Venice in 1965. Her films Francis of Assisi (1966), Galileo (1968), The Year of the Cannibals, (1970), Ripley’s Game) and Clarisse (2012) all played at the festival.

Festival director Alberto Barbera described Cavani as “one of the most emblematic protagonists of the New Italian Cinema of the 1960s, whose work has spanned over sixty years of show business history.”

Leung has starred in three movies which have won the Golden Lion at Venice: A City of Sadness (1989) by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Cyclo (1995) by Tran Anh Hung, and Lust, Caution (2007) by Ang Lee. “I am overwhelmed and honoured with the news from the Biennale di Venezia. I hope to celebrate this award with all the filmmakers I have worked with. This award is a tribute to all of them as well,” said the actor.

Barbera said that Tony Leung is “recognised as one of the major actors of his generation, while maintaining the incredible versatility that first turned him into a film and pop star in Hong Kong in the 1980s,” adding that he ”has achieved a unique profile as a pan-Asian and global star.”

The awards will be presented at the 80th edition of the festival, which takes place from August 30 – September 9.