Clooney Gets Venice Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
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- George Clooney will receive the 2026 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, celebrated on the Lido in his triple capacity as actor, director, and producer.
- Clooney is one of only three people ever nominated across six different Oscar categories — best picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay, and adapted screenplay.
- Venice chief Alberto Barbera called Clooney a "complete and charismatic artist" whose career launched "without shortcuts" through small TV and B-movie roles before ER, noting his charisma is "constructed on his credibility, not on his image."
- Clooney has won two Academy Awards — best supporting actor for Syriana (2005) and Best Picture as a producer on Argo (2012, alongside Ben Affleck and Grant Heslov).
- In 2025, Clooney earned a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, which made Broadway history as the first live performance simultaneously televised on CNN.
- The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2–12, with the full lineup to be announced July 23.
Why it matters: Venice is awarding its top lifetime honor to one of the rare actor-director-producers still working at the highest level — a six-category Oscar nominee with two wins and now a Tony nod, giving the 83rd festival (Sept. 2–12) a marquee name at exactly the moment Clooney's late-career run has gone beyond film into Broadway history.
