Julian Schnabel will be honored with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, running from August 27 to September 6.
The award, dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry, has recently been meted out to Claude Lelouch and Wes Anderson.
Schnabel will receive the prize on September 3 in the festival’s main theater of the Sala Grande ahead of the previously announced Out of Competition screening of his new film, In the Hand of Dante, starring with Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Louis Cancelmi and Franco Nero.
“I first stepped foot in Venice in November of 1976. At the time, I went to Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel of Giotto and to see the paintings in Venice. I never dreamed that I would become a filmmaker, let alone be honored with this award, and be included alongside so many filmmakers I admire, because in fact I am a painter,” said Schnabel in response to news of the honor.
“But I guess I am a filmmaker as well. I’ve now shown my films at the Venice Film Festival for almost 30 years, and to receive the Glory to the Filmmaker Award for the world premiere of my new film In the Hand of Dante means so much to me, as tracking Dante and Nick’s trajectory in this film has somehow mirrored my own life. Thank you. I couldn’t be happier about this.”
Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera praised Schnabel’s diverse filmography, and hailed In the Hand of Dante as his most ambitious feature to date.
“Each of Julian Schnabel’s films is a world of its own. None is like the one before or the one after. Yet, it is not a coincidence that most of them are portraits of artists and passionate depictions of the artistic process. As generous as it is wildly imaginative, Schnabel’s cinematic output is a gift to film, articulated through a wholly original language,” he said.
His new feature, In the Hand of Dante, is his most ambitious project to date. As Martin Scorsese said when asked to describe them, Schnabel’s films are ‘abundant, overflowing and vibrating with life, pulse. There is always more in the frame to see, to experience, and to feel’.”
Arnaud Carrez Senior, Vice President Chief Marketing Officer at Cartier International, said Schnabel’s original contribution to film encapsulated the spirit of the honorary award.
“The unbridled creativity of each of his films invites us into captivating universes through a painter’s sensitivity and visual language. This encounter between artistic sensibility and a dedication to creation marks a precious rarity that is dear to the Maison.”
