Her films have been among the most discussed and divisive, but she remains one of the most important directors of Italian cinema.

Today, at the age of 90, Liliana Cavani receives the recognition of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, which has decided to award her with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Along with her also awarded the honkong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai interpreter of three films Golden Lions in Venice, 'Città dolente' (1989) by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 'Cyclo' (1995) by Tran Anh Hung and 'Lust, Caution' (2007) by Ang Lee.

The decision was taken by the Board of Directors of the Biennale, which endorsed the proposal of the Director of the Exhibition, Alberto Barbera.

"I am very happy and grateful to the Venice Biennale for this beautiful surprise," said the director, who has participated in the Venice Film Festival since 1965 with "Philippe Pétain: Vichy Trial", Lion of St. Mark for the documentary and then several times with 'Francis of Assisi' (1966), 'Galileo' (1968), 'The Cannibals' (1969), among others, up to 'Ripley's Game' (2002) and 'Clarisse' (2012).

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Liliana Cavani on the set of the film "Ripley's Game"

About this recognition, the director Alberto Barbera said: "One of the most emblematic protagonists of the new Italian cinema of the 60s, with a work that later spans over sixty years of entertainment history, Liliana Cavani is a versatile artist able to attend television, theater and opera music with the same unconventional spirit, and the same intellectual restlessness that made his films famous."

"His - continues Barbera - has always been a nonconformist thought, free from ideological preconceptions and free from conditioning of any kind, moved by the urgency of the continuous search for a truth hidden in the most hidden and mysterious parts of the human soul, up to the boundaries of spirituality. The characters of his films are placed in a historical context that testifies to an existential tension towards change, young people looking for answers to important questions, complex and problematic subjects in which the unresolved conflict between the individual and society is reflected".

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Liliana Cavani, a scene from the film "The Night Porter" with Charlotte Rampling