Julian Schnabel will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 27–Sept. 6. The festival made the announcement on Wednesday.
The Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award is “dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry,” according to a release from the festival. Schnabel, director of “Basquiat,” “Before Night Falls” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” will be honored on Sept. 3, before the screening of his new film, “In the Hand of Dante,” starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Louis Cancelmi and Franco Nero. It is screening out of competition.
Adapted from Nick Tosches’ novel of the same name by Louise Kugelberg and Schnabel, “In the Hand of Dante” tells the tale of a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” that travels from a priest to a mob boss in New York City. There, Tosches is tasked with verifying its authenticity.
“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,” Schnabel said in a statement. “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. 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.”
Schnabel has been exhibiting his paintings and sculptures all over the world for decades, including at La Biennale Art Exhibition in 1980, 1982, 1993, 1997 and 2003. He has a long history with the festival: His first feature film, 1996’s “Basquiat,” screened in competition; his second, “Before Night Falls,” won the Venice Grand Jury Prize and the Coppa Volpi for best actor Javier Bardem in 2000.
His 2007 drama “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” earned him Best Director in Cannes before being nominated for four Oscars. His 2010 feature “Miral” won the UNESCO and the UNICEF awards at the Venice Film Festival and screened at the General Assembly Hall of the U.N. In 2018, his Van Gogh biopic “At Eternity’s Gate” screened in competition at the Venice fest. It earned Willem Dafoe the Volpi Cup and a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
“Each of Julian Schnabel’s films is a world of its own. None is like the one before or the one after,” festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. “Yet it is not a coincidence that most of them are portraits of artists and passionate depictions of the artistic process. … 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.’”
As previously announced, Alexander Payne is heading this year’s Venice jury, which also includes Fernanda Torres and Mohammad Rasoulof. New films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Noah Baumbach, Kathryn Bigelow and Guillermo del Toro will premiere there.
