Venice Film Festival will be awarding its Golden Lion award to Jamie Lee Curtis on September 8.
What We Know:
- Curtis, the daughter of Hollywood royalty Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, is best known for her role in the Halloween slasher franchise. Her career was launched in 1978 with the release of the first Halloween directed by John Carpenter. She will be accepting the award when the newest film, Halloween Kills, premieres an out-of-competition screening during the festival.
- Venice Film Festival is the world’s oldest film festival. It will be running from September 1-11 and was the only major film festival to have in-person screenings last year during the pandemic.
- Other titles Curtis has been known for include Knives Out, Trading Places, Freaky Friday, A Fish Called Wanda, and Forever Young. Festival director Alberto Barbera said that “Jamie Lee Curtis is the natural embodiment of a star who knows how to play roles with versatility and amenability all while infusing them with her peerless charisma and signature personality.”
- Barera noted that Curtis’ four-decade-long career, work as a children’s book author, and commitment to charitable causes puts 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.”
- Curtis, who can hardly believe she has been acting long enough to receive a lifetime achievement award, now joins Tilda Swinton, Pedro Almodovar, and Vanessa Redgrave as a recipient of the Golden Lion. Now, the upcoming Halloween Kills will be the sequel to David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot, which set a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a horror film starring a woman.
Curtis said she is proud to accept the award on behalf of her character, Laurie Strode, “and all the courageous heroines of the world who stand tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and refuse to yield.”
