Laura Dern is set to give the Laudatio speech honoring George Clooney at Venice Film Festival where, as previously announced, he will be honored on Wed., Sept. 2, with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Clooney – who is one of only three people to have been nominated in six different Oscar categories throughout his career (best picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay and adapted screenplay) – will be celebrated on the Lido on the evening of Sept. 2 during the festival’s opening ceremony in his triple guise as actor, director and producer.
Clooney is also being celebrated by Venice for the fact that the works he directed, and his public persona, also reflect his other vocation, “a commitment to social and humanitarian causes, making him a figure of absolute prominence in the universe of show business today,” according to a Biennale statement.
Dern in 2025 was part of the cast of Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” alongside Clooney that competed in Venice. She previously attended the Venice Film Festival multiple times with “Haunted Summer” (1988) by Ivan Passer; “October Sky” (1998) by Joe Johnston; “Dr. T & the Women” (2000) by Robert Altman; “Inland Empire” (2006) and “Marriage Story” (2019) by Noah Baumbach, for which she went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. More recently, Dern was in Venice with “The Son” (2022) by Florian Zeller. In 2006 Dern made the speech when Venice awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to David Lynch.
Clooney is a Lido aficionado having strutted down the Venice Palazzo del Cinema red carpet several times over the decades with movies such as 1998’s “Out of Sight,” 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” 2024’s “Wolfs” and “Jay Kelly” last year.
The 83rd edition of Venice will run Sept. 2-12.
