Liev Schreiber to Receive Global Noir Icon Award at Lakes Noir Film Festival; Hayden Panettiere to Be Honoured with Moment of Silence
Liev Schreiber will receive the Global Noir Icon Award at the Lakes Noir International Film Festival's closing ceremony on 27 September 2026, recognising both his acting career and his humanitarian work (The Hollywood Reporter).
The Grand Finale Gala, held in Luino, Italy, will also honour BlueCheck Ukraine, the emergency-relief organisation Schreiber co-founded. BlueCheck Ukraine launched in March 2022 to provide urgent support to populations inside Ukraine affected by the war with Russia. The same gala will include a moment of silence for the late Hayden Panettiere, who passed away on 17 August at age 36. The circumstances of her death remain under investigation.
Panettiere's connection to Ukraine ran deep. Her nine-year relationship with former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares a daughter, Kaya, helped shape her commitment to the cause. In March 2022 she founded Hoplon International, a charity that supplied body armour and medical kits to front-line Ukrainian soldiers.
The festival will screen the 2024 documentary Ukrainians in Exile, directed by Janek Ambros and executive produced by Schreiber. Ambros will receive the Global Noir Visionary Award for the film. Shot on the Ukrainian border just weeks into the 2022 conflict, the documentary was also executive produced by Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.
The Lakes Noir International Film Festival runs across four days, from 24 to 27 September, in Luino on the shores of Lake Maggiore. It is a competitive international event devoted to the thriller, noir, and crime sub-genres — spotlighting stylised crime dramas alongside dark, sobering documentaries. The programme pairs screenings with debates and sessions dedicated to the noir aesthetic.
The festival's closing night brings together several threads that share a common focus: the human cost of the war in Ukraine, and the people in the film industry who have worked to address it. Schreiber's award, the BlueCheck Ukraine tribute, the Ukrainians in Exile screening, and the moment of silence for Panettiere all sit on the same gala programme — a convergence of activism and remembrance that gives the closing ceremony a weight beyond the films themselves.
