Luca Guadagnino will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, with the honour timed to land just before the premiere of his sprawling seven-hour documentary on Bernardo Bertolucci, Joie de Vivre. La Biennale di Venezia announced the award on its official website on 7 August 2026 (La Biennale).

The ceremony is set for Tuesday, 8 September, in the Sala Casinò at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido, followed by the premiere screening of Joie de Vivre (Variety). Guadagnino has described the film as "a very personal movie," structured around conversations with filmmakers across the world reflecting on Bertolucci's life and work (Deadline).

The Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award — presented each year at Venice to "a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry," as the festival's press release puts it — has become a fixture of the Lido's opening days (Variety). Festival director Alberto Barbera praised Guadagnino's career and the originality of his cinematic vision in connection with the honour (Variety).

Recent recipients give a sense of the prize's taste. At the 82nd festival in 2025, the award went to painter-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel, whose film In the Hand of Dante screened out of competition (La Biennale programme). In 2022, the honour went to Walter Hill for Dead for a Dollar (La Biennale programme). In 2024, the programme featured a conversation with Claude Lelouch and Barbara Pravi (La Biennale programme).

What makes this year's pairing unusual is the sheer scale of the film riding alongside the trophy. A seven-hour documentary about one of Italian cinema's most influential directors is not the kind of project that typically headlines an awards gala, and Guadagnino's decision to frame it as a mosaic of global filmmaker testimonies — rather than a straightforward biographical retrospective — fits the festival's appetite for formally ambitious work.

Guadagnino, now firmly established as one of international cinema's most prolific directors, continues a career that has moved between intimate drama and large-scale studio productions. The Venice selection puts him back on the Lido, the festival circuit that has repeatedly served as a launchpad for his work.

For audiences heading to the Lido this September, the draw is straightforward: a filmmaker's award, a marathon documentary, and a festival that has made room for both on the same night.