Tilda Swinton and Ann Hui to Receive Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Film Festival

The 77th Venice International Film Festival (September 2–12, 2020, at Lido di Venezia) will award Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to actress Tilda Swinton and director Ann Hui. Artistic director Alberto Barbera praised Swinton as one of the most original and intense performers since the late 20th century, highlighting her versatility from radical auteur cinema to Hollywood blockbusters, her collaborations with Derek Jarman (all his films from 1985 to 1994) and Luca Guadagnino (four films), and her chameleonic ability to defy conventions. Hui, a key figure of the Hong Kong New Wave, is lauded for her prolific, versatile career spanning four decades across genres—melodrama, ghost stories, semi-autobiographical films, literary adaptations, martial arts, and thrillers—and for pioneering the blend of documentary and fiction. Her work focuses on social themes like refugees, the marginalized, and the elderly, translating Hong Kong's specificity into universal perspectives. The festival also features Cate Blanchett as jury president and Anna Foglietta as host. Recommended films include Swinton's "Edward II" (1991, directed by Derek Jarman) and Hui's "A Simple Life" (2011), her most popular work based on a true story about an elderly maid and her master.