George Clooney receives lifetime achievement award as 83rd Venice Film Festival opens

Clooney takes the Lido as the festival's central figure

George Clooney arrived at the 83rd Venice Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award, anchoring an opening day built as much around current events as around cinema. The 65-year-old actor and director, who first came to the Lido with *Out of Sight* nearly 30 years ago, posed for photographers at the golden lion photo call before addressing reporters with his wife Amal Clooney. Coverage described him as the undoubted star of the festival's opening, framing his presence as a recurring fixture rather than a one-off appearance.

Press conference turns to AI, consolidation and American politics

At the opening news conference, Clooney used the platform to weigh in on the artificial intelligence revolution in Hollywood, the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, and the state of journalism and power in the United States. On AI, he said his industry will have to find ways to survive and joked that he would "like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I'm dead." He bemoaned the fact that some of the world's richest men own The Washington Post and X, and called the Paramount-Warner deal "a complicated thing because I don't know how this works out." Clooney also invoked the term "kakistocracy" to describe American governance, adding, "I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now. But we'll get through it."

A lineup shaped by conflicts and documentaries

Festival director Alberto Barbera told The Associated Press that most of the films considered during the selection process dealt with "contemporary problems," saying, "We didn't really have a choice." The 11-day program features documentaries about the conflict in Gaza ("NAZA"), Elon Musk ("Musk") and independent Russian journalists covering the war in Ukraine ("My Undesirable Friends — Part II: Exile"), along with Palestinian films and a short about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal said the focus on current events reflected the state of the world. "Look, we could say how are we possibly here talking about movies right now when the world is in a state of emergency," she said. "To me the answer has something to do with empathy." When asked whether films should be political, she said they are "fundamentally, unavoidably political."

Opening film 'Ink' and the question of female directors

The competition opened with "Ink," a Danny Boyle-directed adaptation of James Graham's play starring Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch and Jack O'Connell as tabloid editor Larry Lamb. Pearce said Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth told him, "Dad's very happy that you are playing him," though she noted Murdoch had not yet seen the film. Boyle said the point was not to "monsterize" Murdoch, and turned the discussion to AI, warning that tech giants "will be able to replace journalists" and questioning whether an "AI journalist" could challenge the power that created it. Gyllenhaal also addressed attention, sparked when the July slate was announced, on the fact that only one competition film was directed by a woman; the documentary "NAZA," added the prior week, is co-directed by a woman. "I guess it's just finally become clear that men make better movies than women do," Gyllenhaal quipped, before turning to the systemic issues facing female directors.

What's next at the Lido

The 83rd edition runs for 11 days, with additional competition screenings, the Clooney lifetime achievement ceremony, and the closing awards still ahead. Festival programmers have framed the lineup as a launch pad for awards-season contenders, with "Ink" cited as one possible Oscar springboard.