It was attributed to the iconic American actress Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghostbusters, Gorilla in the fog, Avatar, The Master Gardener) il Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7, 2024).
The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale, chaired by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who adopted the proposal of the Director of the Exhibition, Alberto Barbera.
“I am truly honored to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale,” said Sigourney Weaver in accepting the offer. “This award is a privilege that I share with all the directors and collaborators I have worked with over the years. I proudly accept this recognition, which also celebrates all those who helped bring these films to life.”.
Director Alberto Barbera declared: “An actress of Sigourney Weaver’s caliber has few rivals. With an important theatrical background, he conquered the general cinema audience with Alienby Ridley Scott, quickly becoming an emblematic figure of the 80s, during which she coined the image of an unprecedented heroine for the action genre, capable of successfully holding her own against the male models who until then had dominated epic and adventure cinema.
Not content with having paved the way for many other imitators, the actress continued in her incessant search for her own identity, which was constantly called into question, through choices that range from genre films to comedies, from auteur cinema to children’s filmsescaping the labels that would have confined her to the victorious icon of the Reagan era. In the role of an authentic collaborator rather than a simple tool to be molded by the hands of a director, she contributed to the success of the films of James Cameron, Paul Schrader, Peter Weir, Michael Apted, Roman Polanski, Ivan Reitman, Mike Nichols, Ang Lee and many others, managing each time to impress on her charismatic presence the indelible mark of a complex, sometimes contradictory, always authentic figure. Gifted with a great temperament, capable of moving delicately but without fragility, she imposed an image of a confident and determined woman, dynamic and tenacious, not without letting transpire, with ever different nuances, a feminine sensitivity of intense magnetism.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement is a well-deserved recognition for a star who has been able to build bridges between the most sophisticated auteur cinema and films that communicate with the public in a frank and original way, without ever giving up being herself.”.
