The Venice Film Festival is awarding its lifetime achievement award this year to Jamie Lee Curtis, the American actor best known for her decadeslong run in the “Halloween” slasher franchise.
Curtis will pick up the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement on Sept. 8, when the latest installment, “Halloween Kills,” is screened on Venice’s Lido out of competition.
The world’s oldest film festival runs Sept. 1-11 and will feature the world premiere of “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the sci-fi bestseller. Venice was the only major international film festival to have in-person screenings last year during the summertime lull in the pandemic.
Curtis’ film career was launched in 1978 with the now-classic “Halloween” directed by John Carpenter. The daughter of Hollywood royalty Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Curtis went onto other star turns, including in “A Fish Called Wanda” and “True Lies.”
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In a statement released by festival organizers, Curtis said she couldn’t believe she had been acting long enough to deserve a lifetime achievement. She also said she was honored to receive the award at the same time a new chapter of Laurie Strode’s quest to vanquish the masked Michael Meyers is coming out.
“Halloween — and my partnership with Laurie Strode — launched and sustained my career, and to have these films evolve into a new franchise that is beloved by audiences around the world was, and remains, a gift,” she said.
Festival director Alberto Barbera said Curtis’ four-decade career as well as her work as a children’s book author and commitment to charitable causes put her in “that rarefied group of Hollywood actors who best reflect the qualities that are the very soul of the global film industry and its legacy.”
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Recent winners of the lifetime Golden Lion include Tilda Swinton, Pedro Almodovar and Vanessa Redgrave.
