Pedro Almodovar will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for directors at the 76th Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7, 2019).
The decision was made by the board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, which espoused the proposal made by the Director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera.
Pedro Almodovar
Accepting the award, Pedro Almodovar declared: “I am very excited and honoured with the gift of this Golden Lion. I have very good memories of the Venice Film Festival. My international debut took place there in 1983 with Dark Habits. It was the first time one of my films travelled out of Spain, it was my international baptism and a wonderful experience, as it was my return with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 1988. This Lion is going to become my pet, along with the two cats I live with. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for giving me this award”.
THE MOTIVATION
Regarding this award, Alberto Barbera declared, “Almodóvar isn’t only the greatest and most influential Spanish director since Buñuel, he is a filmmaker who has offered us the most multifaceted, controversial, and provocative portraits of post-Franco Spain.”
He continued, “The topics of transgression, desire, and identity are the terrain of choice for his films, which he imbues with corrosive humour and adorns with a visual splendour that confers unusual radiance on the aesthetic camp and pop art to which he explicitly refers.”
Further added, “Lovesickness, the heartache of abandonment, the contradictions of desire, and the lacerations of depression converge in movies that straddle melodrama and its parody, achieving peaks of emotional authenticity that redeem any potential formal excess. Without forgetting that Pedro Almodovar excels, above all, in painting incredibly original female portraits, thanks to an exceptional empathy which allows him to represent their power, emotional richness, and inevitable weaknesses with a rare and touching authenticity.”
Filmography
1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom
1982 Labyrinth of Passions
1983 Dark Habits
1984-85 What Have I Done to Deserve This?!
1985-86 Matador
1986 Law of Desire
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1989 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
1991 High Heels
1993 Kika
1995 The Flower of my Secret
1997 Live Flesh
1999 All About my Mother
2001 Talk to Her
2003 Bad Education
2006 Volver
2009 Broken Embraces
2011 The Skin I Live In
2013 I’m So Excited!
2016 Julieta
2019 Dolor y Gloria
