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.
Gregory Zalcman, from left, Ron Dyens, Gints Zilbalodis, center, and Matiss Kaza accept the award for best animated feature film for "Flow" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Goldie Hawn looks on from right. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
"Flow," a wordless cat parable that became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, prompted a sleepless night for Latvians celebrating the historic accolade.
"Flow" won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday's 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, which aired starting at 2 a.m. Monday, in an upset over DreamWorks Animations' "The Wild Robot."
The Oscar statuette is the latest source of hometown pride for the Baltic country of nearly 1.9 million people who have embraced "Flow" and filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis in droves since the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. The National Film Centre of Latvia calls the film "an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of Latvian cinema."
More than 320,000 people have watched it in theaters across Latvia, an audience larger than any other film screened in the country in the last 30 years, according to the film center. And over 15,000 people over 10 days visited the Latvian National Museum of Art to see the film's Golden Globe Award — also Latvia's first — on public display in January.
After thanking his cats and dogs during his acceptance speech, Zilbalodis acknowledged the momentous nature of his win. The film was also nominated for "Best International Feature Film" at the Academy Awards.
"This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated," Zilbalodis told the Los Angeles audience. "So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon."
Latvian musician Ralfs Eilands called the pre-dawn ceremony as "indescribable! The best sleepless night in my life!" in a post on X.
The film — called "Straume" in Latvian — is a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur... Read More
