Laura Dern to Honor George Clooney with Golden Lion Speech at Venice Film Festival
Laura Dern will deliver the laudatio — the formal tribute speech — honouring George Clooney at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, where Clooney receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on Wednesday, 2 September, during the opening ceremony on the Lido (Variety).
La Biennale di Venezia, the organisation that runs the festival, published the announcement on its official news page on 30 August (La Biennale). The 83rd edition runs 2–12 September.
The honour places Clooney in a long line of recipients of one of the festival's highest distinctions. Past winners include Italian director Francesco Rosi, among others whose careers the festival has recognised with the same prize (La Biennale).
Venice is citing Clooney not only for his work on screen but for his public commitment to social and humanitarian causes, according to a Biennale statement (Variety). The festival's tribute spans the full arc of a career that has crossed acting, directing, producing, and screenwriting.
Clooney is one of only three people ever nominated in six different Oscar categories: best picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay, and adapted screenplay (Variety). That range — from the leading-man charm of the Ocean's trilogy to the directed political tension of Good Night, and Good Luck — is part of what the Golden Lion recognises.
For Dern, the assignment carries its own history. In 2006, she presented the same lifetime-achievement prize to David Lynch at Venice, the director who cast her in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart (Variety). Two decades later, she steps back onto the Lido stage in the same role.
Dern and Clooney also share a recent professional connection: both appeared in Noah Baumbach's 2025 film Jay Kelly, which competed at the Venice Film Festival (Variety).
The festival's official selection this year spans seven sections: the main Venezia 83 Competition, Out of Competition, Orizzonti, Venezia Spotlight, Venice Classics, Venice Immersive, and Biennale College Cinema (La Biennale). The opening ceremony, where Dern's speech and Clooney's prize take centre stage, sets the tone for eleven days of screenings along the Venice Lido.
For a festival that opens its doors to the world each September, few moments carry the weight of the lifetime-achievement presentation. When Dern steps to the podium on 2 September, she will be doing what Venice does best: connecting the people who make the films to the audiences who watch them.
