Wes Anderson will be honored at the 80th Venice Film Festival, which runs Aug. 30-Sept. 9. The U.S. director will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which is given to “a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.”
The awards ceremony will take place on Sept. 1 in the Palazzo del Cinema, before the screening of his latest film, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley and Richard Ayoade. The 40-minute movie premieres in the festival’s Out of Competition section.
In the Netflix film, adapted from Roald Dahl’s story, a rich man learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes. He sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
Anderson’s films include “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The French Dispatch” and “Asteroid City,” as well as “Rushmore,” “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” “The Darjeeling Limited,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Isle of Dogs.”
Alberto Barbera, the director of the Venice Film Festival, said: “Wes Anderson is one of the few directors whose unique and unmistakable style can be recognized with just one frame. His formal universe harks back to a childlike and visionary aesthetic, dominated by pastel colors and obsessive care in preparing strictly symmetrical sequences populated by misfit dreamers who are incurably romantic and cheerful.”
He added, “From the memorable and poignant soundtracks (often inspired by the 1960s) to the extravagant costumes that reflect the characters’ psyche, each detail and the composition of every single shot is painstakingly conceived and masterfully carried out.
“The worlds the director creates are plausible and yet completely imaginary and fictitious, buttressed by surreal humor and a disconcerting taste for the vicissitudes of maladjusted families, absent fathers, and imperturbable mothers. Eccentric and highly idiomatic cinema that is always perfectly entertaining and enjoyable.”
Cyrille Vigneron, president and CEO of Cartier International, said: “Wes Anderson has created a unique and recognizable style. Whether his stories take us to India, New England, Imaginary Hungary, Paris or elsewhere, he brings us in his own imaginary, poetic and truly human world. Everything is fictitious, bizarre, hilarious, yet his characters and heroes touch our heart. The scenography, costumes and scenes have incredible precision in which we immerse ourselves totally and unconditionally.
“Wes Anderson’s professional community includes some of the most famous and accomplished actresses and actors of the world who morph into his creations to become incredible characters, heroes and villains. His movies are formal art pieces in their construction. Through this endless creativity he continuously shares with us a truly humanistic view on the world.
“The more the world becomes dangerous, crazy, uncertain, the more his world looks like a safe place to be, and to look forward to. We are very happy and honored to celebrate him with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award.”
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is produced by Indian Paintbrush Productions and American Empirical Pictures. Netflix holds international distribution rights.
