A Golden Lion for a Star Who Loves Venice Back
If Venice loves George Clooney, the feeling is clearly mutual. The American actor, director and producer will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, celebrating a relationship with the Mostra that stretches back almost three decades. The award, presented during the opening ceremony on September 2, 2026, recognizes a career that has moved effortlessly between acting, directing and producing.
But Clooney’s bond with Venice goes well beyond cinema. In September 2014, the city became the setting for one of the most important moments of his personal life, when he married human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney. The couple returned to Venice together in 2023, further strengthening a connection that has always mixed Hollywood glamour with a very personal affection for the city.
Clooney himself summed up his feelings for the Festival when the Golden Lion was announced: “I’ve had so many extraordinary moments in Venice. This festival is without question my favorite.”
Alberto Barbera: “A Complete and Charismatic Artist”
Venice’s affection for Clooney is also reflected in the words of Festival Artistic Director Alberto Barbera, who recommended the actor for the Lifetime Achievement award.
In his official statement, Barbera described Clooney as, “in his triple capacity as actor, director, and producer,” a “complete and charismatic artist” who has transformed “a deep vocation into one of the most luminous parabolas of contemporary film.”
Barbera also underlined how Clooney’s career was built without shortcuts, beginning with small television roles and B-movies before the international success of ER. According to the Festival director, this trajectory helped shape an actor capable of inhabiting the screen with “disarming spontaneity,” making his characters credible, approachable and human.
It is a description that also fits Clooney’s history at the Lido. Since his Venice debut in 1998, he has returned again and again, sometimes as an actor, sometimes as a director and producer, and often as one of the most recognizable faces on the red carpet.
George Clooney at Venice: The Films
Across the years, George Clooney has been physically present in Venice for a remarkable series of films. From his first appearance in 1998 along with Jennifer Lopez and Steven Soderbergh (as depicted in the image above) to Jay Kelly in 2025, these are the Festival editions connected to his cinematic career:
- 1998 – Out of Sight
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle
Plot: A professional bank robber and a U.S. Marshal develop an unexpected attraction after crossing paths during his escape from custody.
Clooney made his Venice Festival debut with Soderbergh’s stylish crime comedy, beginning a relationship with the Lido that would continue for decades. No official Venice award was received by the film. - 2003 – Intolerable Cruelty
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton
Plot: A brilliant divorce lawyer finds himself caught between a wealthy serial divorcee and an increasingly complicated romantic game.
The Coen brothers’ romantic comedy was presented in Venice with Clooney at the center of its star power. No official Festival award was given to the film. - 2005 – Good Night, and Good Luck.
Director: George Clooney
Cast: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr.
Plot: Journalist Edward R. Murrow takes on Senator Joseph McCarthy and the climate of fear surrounding the American anti-communist investigations of the 1950s.
One of Clooney’s most important Venice appearances came with his second directorial feature, which competed for the Golden Lion. Clooney and Grant Heslov received the Osella for Best Screenplay, while David Strathairn was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. The film went on to receive six Academy Award nominations. - 2007 – Michael Clayton
Director: Tony Gilroy
Cast: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack
Plot: A corporate “fixer” is forced to confront a crisis when a colleague appears to suffer a breakdown after uncovering a major corporate scandal.
Clooney returned to the Competition with Gilroy’s acclaimed legal thriller. The film was in the running for the Golden Lion but did not receive an official Venice award. - 2008 – Burn After Reading
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich
Plot: A misplaced disc containing the memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of two gym employees who attempt to exploit its contents.
Clooney reunited with the Coen brothers, appearing alongside Pitt, McDormand and Malkovich in one of the Festival’s most star-packed premieres. The film did not receive an official Venice award. - 2009 – The Men Who Stare at Goats
Director: Grant Heslov
Cast: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
Plot: A journalist investigating the Iraq War encounters a secret military program devoted to supposedly paranormal forms of warfare.
Clooney returned to the Lido in Heslov’s satirical war comedy, which was presented out of competition. No official Venice award was given to the film. - 2011 – The Ides of March
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei
Plot: A young political campaign strategist discovers how ambition, loyalty and corruption collide during a fiercely contested presidential race.
Clooney opened the 68th Venice Film Festival with his political drama, in which he both directed and starred. The film competed for the Golden Lion but did not win an official Venice award. - 2013 – Gravity
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Plot: After a catastrophic accident destroys their spacecraft, two astronauts must fight to survive in orbit and find a way back to Earth.
Clooney appeared alongside Bullock in Cuarón’s space thriller, which opened the 70th Venice Film Festival. The film did not receive a Venice award, but went on to become a major international awards contender and won seven Academy Awards. - 2017 – Suburbicon
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Noah Jupe, Oscar Isaac
Plot: Behind the immaculate façades of a seemingly perfect 1950s suburban community, a family becomes engulfed in violence, betrayal and racism.
Clooney returned to Venice as director with this dark comedy written by Joel and Ethan Coen, Grant Heslov and Clooney. It was presented in Competition and received no official Festival award. - 2024 – Wolfs
Director: Jon Watts
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Richard Kind
Plot: Two professional fixers, accustomed to working alone, are unexpectedly assigned to the same job and find their carefully controlled night spiralling out of control.
Presented out of competition, Wolfs reunited Clooney and Pitt as an iconic screen duo. Clooney also served as a producer through Smokehouse Pictures. No official Venice award was given to the film. - 2025 – Jay Kelly
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough
Plot: A celebrated film actor confronts his past, his relationships and the consequences of a life spent in the spotlight during a journey of self-discovery.
Baumbach’s film marked Clooney’s most recent cinematic appearance at Venice before receiving his Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion. Jay Kelly was selected in Competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. No official acting or film award was attributed to Clooney or the film.
A Career Written Into the History of the Lido
Taken together, these appearances show why the Golden Lion feels particularly appropriate in Clooney’s case.
Venice has accompanied virtually every phase of his career: the Hollywood star emerging in the late 1990s, the actor working with major American filmmakers, the director presenting increasingly ambitious projects, and finally the veteran performer returning with films such as Wolfs and Jay Kelly.
His Venice story is therefore not simply a list of premieres. It is a record of a long-running artistic relationship with one of the world’s most important film festivals, one in which Clooney has repeatedly chosen the Lido as the stage for films representing different sides of his career.
2023: Venice Without a Film, But With Amal
There is one more Venice appearance that deserves to be included, even though it was not technically a Festival film engagement. In August 2023, during the 80th Venice Film Festival, George Clooney returned to the city alongside Amal Clooney for the DVF Awards at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
This time, it was Amal who had been invited and honored, receiving the DVF Leadership Award for her work defending human rights and victims of abuses around the world. George was there as her husband and supporter rather than as a Festival guest presenting a film — but his presence was nevertheless a legitimate parallel appearance during the Venice season.
The occasion also provided perhaps the most fitting coda to Clooney’s personal relationship with the city. Speaking in Venice, he recalled that it was “where I got married” and called it “the most romantic city in the world.”
And so, as Venice prepares to place its Golden Lion in his hands, the story comes full circle. The Festival loves George Clooney, George Clooney loves Venice, and Venice is not only where his cinema has repeatedly been celebrated, but also where one of the most important chapters of his life began.
Continue reading: Alberto Barbera and Cameron Bailey: Two Directors. One Tightrope.
