Luca Guadagnino will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where his new documentary Joie de vivre will premiere out of competition on Sept. 8. Guadagnino will receive the award at a ceremony before the documentary’s screening.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said the award recognizes a filmmaker “who has managed to transform his curiosity into a form of creative freedom.”
Guadagnino’s latest narrative feature, Artificial, will not make the trip to the Lido. The film, starring Andrew Garfield as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was originally set up at Amazon MGM Studios but was dropped shortly after Amazon announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI. Neon subsequently acquired worldwide rights.
As previously reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Artificial will skip the fall festival circuit as Neon has opted for a late December qualifying release before expanding the film in early 2027. Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera told THR the festival had hoped to premiere the movie, but Neon decided against a Venice launch because it wanted additional time to complete international sales.
Guadagnino will instead return to Venice with Joie de vivre, a 7-hour epic documentary on the legendary Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci.
“It might seem like a rhetorical gesture to say I am honored to receive the Glory to the Filmmaker award, but it is the plain truth for many reasons,” Guadagnino said. “To be honored for one’s craft or life as a filmmaker is an ambition that no one who makes films could ever presume to imagine achieving—especially by joining a group of filmmakers who have received this prestigious honor before me and to whom I owe so much of my development. So, I want to emphasize once again what an honor it is to receive this award, especially from Alberto Barbera and La Biennale di Venezia. Thank you, thank you!”
In a statement, Barbera said Guadagnino has established himself as a “global director, capable of working with leading international actors and producers,” while “defying alignment with any single school or movement… He has navigated diverse genres—from melodrama to horror, coming-of-age to psychological thriller—while maintaining a consistent and recognizable voice, without ever losing a deeply Italian identity in portraying bodies, settings, and history.”
The honor marks another Venice milestone for Guadagnino, whose films After the Hunt, Queer, Bones and All, Suspiria, A Bigger Splash, I Am Love and The Protagonists all premiered in Venice. He won the Silver Lion for best director in 2022 for Bones and All.
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