Actress Stefania Sandrelli on Tuesday
got this year's Pietro Bianchi Prize, awarded each year by
Italian film journalists to an Italian cinema personality on the
occasion of the Venice Film Festival.
The 79th edition of the world's oldest film fest runs from
August 31 to September 10 at the Venice Lido.
In giving the 76-year-old Sandrelli its 45th Bianchi Prize, the
Italian Cinematic Journalists Union SNGCI said "in agreement
with the Venice Film Festival, the Bianchi pays homage to one of
our most loved actresses, an icon of commedia all'italiana, who
continues to conquer the public with simplicity, great passion
and the evergreen freshness of her talent".
Sandrelli, who first found fame at the age of 14 opposite
Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 film Divorce Italian Style and
went on to star in Seduced and Abandoned (1963), The Conformist
(1970), 1900 (1976) and The Key (1983), said: I'm very happy and
deeply honoured to receive such a prestigious award from the
Cinema Journalists, such an important category for our work
which has always followed me with attention and an affection I
have totally returned".
The SNGCI said, further, that the prize "celebrates her first 60
years of love for the cinema with her return to the Festival
with Water and Aniseed, the debut work by Corrado Ceron, and a
special event at the Giornate degli Autori (Auteurs' Days)".
Having picked up a career Golden Lion in 2005, Sandrelli has won
seven Silver Ribbons as best actress from the SNGCI.
Previous winners of the Bianchi Prize, which was first awarded
in 1977, include Mario Soldati, Sophia Loren, Alberto Sordi,
Claudia Cardinale, Virna Lisi, Carlo Verdone, Michele Placido,
Dominique Sanda, Cesare Zavattini, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Luigi
Zampa, Alberto Lattuada, Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini,
Francesco Rosi, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, Paolo eandVittorio
Taviani, Luigi Magni, Carlo Lizzani, Bernardo Bertolucci,
Michelangelo Antonioni, Marco Bellocchio, Giuliano Montaldo and
Citto Maselli.
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