Curated playlist
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients
- Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
- Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
- Al PacinoAl Pacino's mother told him poor people don't do acting. He went on to earn nine Oscar nominations.
- Orson WellesOrson Welles burned ten reels of his own Don Quixote film. He felt the 1969 Moon landings made its ending obsolete.
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- Charlie ChaplinCharlie Chaplin was in a workhouse twice before he turned nine. By 26 he was among the world's highest-paid people.
- David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
- Stanley KubrickAfter copycat crimes and death threats, Stanley Kubrick pulled A Clockwork Orange from release in the United Kingdom.
- Hayao MiyazakiHayao Miyazaki was told as a boy he would not live past 20. He went on to found Studio Ghibli in 1985.
- Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski survived the Holocaust by pretending to be Catholic. As a boy in Poland, he memorized prayers to hide.
- Clint EastwoodPresident Reagan quoted Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day" to Congress.
- Dustin HoffmanWhen Dustin Hoffman told his family he wanted to be an actor, his Aunt Pearl had a ready answer. "You can't be an actor. You are not good-looking enough." Hoffman was born in Los Angeles in 1937, and her prediction aged badly. He went on…
- Francis Ford CoppolaMarlon Brando won the Godfather role only after a screen test and a reduced fee.
- Ingmar BergmanAt nine, Ingmar Bergman traded his tin soldiers for a magic lantern. He soon staged Strindberg puppet plays.
- Jane FondaJane Fonda sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during a 1972 visit to Hanoi, and a photograph of that moment outraged a large number of Americans. It earned her a nickname that has followed her for decades: Hanoi Jane. For many…
- Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis accepted a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, and she did not sound like a person winding down. "I feel so alive, like I'm this 14-year-old person just…
- Akira KurosawaRashomon won Venice's Golden Lion in 1951 after its own studio entered it reluctantly.
- Michelangelo AntonioniAfter a stroke took his speech, Michelangelo Antonioni kept directing films. He made Beyond the Clouds in 1995.
- John LasseterDisney fired John Lasseter in 1984 after he pitched a film blending hand-drawn art with computer backgrounds.
- Robert RedfordRobert Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah, on the 16th of September 2025. He was 89 years old. After a private funeral, he was buried on his own property there. The man who ended his days in a place that carried his…
- Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard dropped his script and wrote dialogue day by day for the film Breathless.
- Julie AndrewsJulie Andrews sang on a beer crate as a child. She needed it to reach the microphone in wartime variety shows.
- Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver once said she felt like "a giant spider" as a girl. By the age of 11, she reportedly stood 180 cm tall. She also recalled never having "the confidence to ever think she could act". Weaver, born on the 8th of October 1949,…
- Robert BressonRobert Bresson made only thirteen feature films, yet seven made a 2012 Sight and Sound list. No other director had more.
- Éric RohmerÉric Rohmer wore a false moustache to the New York premiere of one of his films.