We woke up to wonderful news, to distract us from this hacking cold that's not going away *sniffle*, Julie Andrews has been named as the recipient of this year's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. She'll be honored at the 76th annual Venice Film Festival which runs August 28th through September 7th.
The film lineup won't be announced until later in the summer but this is exciting news to tide us over 'til then. We hope Julie is helicoptered & parachuted umbrellas in from the sky to accept her Golden Lion!
About this choice, the director of the festival Alberto Barbera says:
“At a very young age, Ms Andrews made a name for herself in the music halls of London and, later, on Broadway thanks to her remarkable singing and acting talent. Her first Hollywood movie, Mary Poppins, gave her top-tier star status, which was later confirmed in another treasured film, The Sound of Music. Those two roles projected her into the Olympus of international stardom, making her an iconic figure adored by several generations of moviegoers. Above and beyond the different interpretations that can be given to her two most famous films (and highlighting the transgressive value of her characters rather than their apparent conservatism), it must be remembered that Andrews went out of her way to avoid remaining confined as an icon of family movies. She accepted roles that were diverse, dramatic, provocative and imbued with scathing irony. For example, The Americanization of Emily by Arthur Hiller, and the many movies directed by her husband Blake Edwards, with whom she formed a very profound and long-lasting artistic partnership, a marvelous example of human and professional devotion to a captivating esthetic project that prevailed over the commercial success of the individual movies. This Golden Lion is the well-deserved recognition of an extraordinary career which has admirably parsed popular success with artistic ambition, without ever bowing to facile compromises.”