Wes Anderson, the American cinematic master of quirks, will receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at this year’s Venice International Film Festival.
Anderson will receive the award in Venice on September 1, ahead of the out-of-competition world premiere of TThe wonderful world of Henry Sugar. The new 40-minute play, starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley and Richard Ayoade, is inspired by writings by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Author Roald Dahl. Netflix is releasing the movie worldwide.
The Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award is designed to honor a film personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.
“Wes Anderson is one of the few directors whose unique and unmistakable style can be recognized in a single painting,” Venice Festival Director Alberto Barbera said in announcing the honor. “His formal universe refers to a childish and visionary aesthetic, dominated by pastel colors and obsessive care in the elaboration of strictly symmetrical sequences populated by incurably romantic and joyful misfit dreamers… The worlds that the director creates are plausible and, nevertheless, completely imaginary and fictional, underpinned by surreal humor and a disconcerting taste for the adventures of misfit families, absent fathers and imperturbable mothers. Eccentric and very idiomatic cinema that is always perfectly entertaining and enjoyable”.
Cyrille Vigneron, president and CEO of Cartier International, praised Anderson for creating “a unique and recognizable style” that is “fictional, bizarre, hilarious (and) truly humanistic.”
Anderson’s newest feature, asteroid citypremiered in Cannes and is being distributed by Focus Features.
The 80th Venice International Film Festival will take place from August 30 to September 9.
