In this Sunday, July 23, 2017 file photo, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar poses for photographers after winning the best director award during the Platino Awards ceremony in Madrid. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, file)
ROME (AP) --
The Spanish Oscar-winning writer and director Pedro Almodóvar will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival.
The decision from the board of the Biennale di Venezia, follows a proposal by the festival's director, Alberto Barbera.
Almodovar, whose film credits include 1999's All About My Mother and 2002's Talk to Her , said Friday he has good memories of Venice, where he made his international debut in 1983: "This Lion is going to become my pet, along with the two cats I live with."
Barbera praised Almodóvar as "the greatest and most influential Spanish director since Buñuel" and "a filmmaker who has offered us the most multifaceted, controversial, and provocative portraits of post-Franco Spain."
The 76th Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.
This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón, left, and Adriana Paz in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)
Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated trans actor and star of the movie "Emilia Pérez," is apologizing for her old posts on social media that denigrated Islam and that called George Floyd "a drug addict and a hustler."
"As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain," the actor said in a statement via Netflix, where her film can be streamed. "All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness."
Gascón made history as the first transgender performer to be nominated for the Oscar for best actress, helping make "Emilia Pérez" the most nominated film going into next month's show. Netflix will be hoping the controversy doesn't derail the film's Oscar chances.
Old posts from Gascon's account on Twitter resurfaced this week, some going as far back as 2016, that took aim at Muslims' dress, language and culture in her native Spain. She also suggested that Islam be banned.
And less than a month after George Floyd, a Black man, who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, prompting a national reckoning with police brutality and racism, Gascón offered her assessment of Floyd as a drug addict who "very few people ever cared" for.
Gascón was a regular in Mexican telenovelas before transitioning in 2018. In "Emilia Pérez," she plays both a menacing cartel kingpin and the woman who emerges after the kingpin fakes his own death, Emilia Pérez. Years later, Emilia contacts the lawyer who facilitated her transition (Zoe Saldaña) to help her reunite with her wife (Selena Gomez) and their children.
Old tweets have come back to haunt celebrities before, include James Gunn, Trevor Noah and Blake... Read More
