Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jerzy Skolimowski Awarded Golden Lion at Venice Festival

ROME – French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski are to be awarded the Golden Lion for their career achievements at the Venice Film Festival.

The decision was made by the Venice Biennale, which organizes the 73rd edition of the Venice Film Festival from August 31 to September 10 this year.

The choice of Belmondo and Skolimowski was proposed by the director of the festival, Alberto Barbera, according to the organizing committee’s statement.

This is the first time the Venice Festival has presented this award, and it intends to make it every year in two categories, one for direction and the other for acting.

Belmondo is considered an “icon of French and international cinema,” while Skolimowski is one of the “representative exponents of the modern cinema born during the nouvelles vagues of the 1960s.”