Tilda Swinton to be honoured at Venice Film Festival

Tilda Swinton will be honoured for her career achievements at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.

The Michael Clayton actress has been selected to receive the Golden Lion for career achievement at the Italian festival, which is the first major film festival to hold a physical edition following the coronavirus crisis.

"This great festival has been dear to my heart for three decades: to be honoured by her in this way is extremely humbling," said Swinton in a statement, reports Variety. "To come to Venice, this year of all years, to celebrate immortal cinema and her defiant survival in the face of all the challenges that evolution might throw at her - as at us all - will be my sincere joy."

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera added that the British actress was being honoured for "her commanding and incomparable personality, uncommon versatility, and an ability to pass from the most radical art-house cinema to big Hollywood productions, without ever eschewing her inexhaustible need to bring to life unclassifiable and uncommon characters".

She will be honoured alongside Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, whose films A Simple Life and The Golden Era previously premiered at the festival, which is currently scheduled to take place between 2 and 12 September.

Swinton recently got back to work shooting The Human Voice with Pedro. She’s also set to star in Australian director George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing alongside Idris Elba.