Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn will receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
Burstyn’s credits include The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, The King Of Marvin Gardens, Requiem For A Dream and Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, for which she won the best actress Oscar.
She said in a statement: “Wow! I not only get to travel to one of my top most 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!”
Burstyn will receive her award alongside a screening of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact at the festival, in which she stars as an older, imagined version of Marilyn Monroe. Dakota Johnson also stars.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said: “An actress of rare intensity and truth, Ellen Burstyn has been a presence in American cinema for over 50 years, bringing depth and complexity to unforgettable female characters embodying the contradictions and transformations in the contemporary woman.”
He added that “she worked with some of the most important film directors of the time”, including Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Schrader, Alain Resnais, Bob Rafelson, Paul Mazursky and Christopher Nolan.
The Venice Film Festival runs September 2-12. The full lineup will be unveiled on July 23.
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