Wes Anderson to receive the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker 2023 Award

La Biennale di Venezia and Cartier are pleased to announce that the American director, writer and producer Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums) is the recipient of the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award of the 80^th Venice International Film Festival (August 30th – September 9th, 2023), dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.

The award ceremony for Wes Anderson will take place on Friday September 1^st 2023 in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) at 2.30 pm, before the screening Out of Competition of his new work, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (USA, 40') with Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade.

French composer Alexandre Desplat will deliver the laudatio for Wes Anderson – with whom he has worked on seven films – at the ceremony awarding to the director the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Prize of the 80^th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia.

The ceremony will be held on Friday September 1^st in Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema (Lido di Venezia) at 2:30 pm, before the screening Out of Competition of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (USA, 40’) by Wes Anderson, for which Alexandre Desplat composed the music.

Alexandre Desplat won the Oscar for Best Original Score in 2015 for Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel, and has also worked with the director on: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023). Alexandre Desplat won his second Oscar in 2018 for the music of The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, the film that won the Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, and was President of the Jury for the Competition of the 2014 Venice Film Festival.

Welcoming this announcement, the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera has stated: “Wes Anderson is one of the few directors whose unique and unmistakable style can be recognized with just one frame. His formal universe harks back to a childlike and visionary aesthetic, dominated by pastel colors and obsessive care in preparing strictly symmetrical sequences populated by misfit dreamers who are incurably romantic and cheerful. From the memorable and poignant soundtracks (often inspired by the 1960s) to the extravagant costumes that reflect the characters' psyche, each detail and the composition of every single shot is painstakingly conceived and masterfully carried out. The worlds the director creates are plausible and yet completely imaginary and fictitious, buttressed by surreal humor and a disconcerting taste for the vicissitudes of maladjusted families, absent fathers, and imperturbable mothers. Eccentric and highly idiomatic cinema that is always perfectly entertaining and enjoyable.”

“Wes Anderson has created a unique and recognisable style”, has declared Cyrille Vigneron President and CEO of Cartier International. “Whether his stories take us to India, New England, Imaginary Hungary, Paris or elsewhere, he brings us in his own imaginary, poetic and truly human world. Everything is fictitious, bizarre, hilarious, yet his characters and heroes touch our heart. The scenography, costumes and scenes have incredible precision in which we immerse ourselves totally and unconditionally. Wes Anderson’s professional community includes some of the most famous and accomplished actresses and actors of the world who morph into his creations to become incredible characters, heroes and villains. His movies are formal art pieces in their construction. Through this endless creativity he continuously shares with us a truly humanistic view on the world. The more the world becomes dangerous, crazy, uncertain, the more his world looks like a safe place to be, and to look forward to. We are very happy and honoured to celebrate him with the Cartier glory to the filmmaker award”.

Directed by Wes Anderson, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is produced by Indian Paintbrush Productions and American Empirical Pictures. International Distribution: Netflix.

Synopsis
A rich man learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes.
He sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
Extremely faithfully adapted from Roald Dahl’s long short story.

Wes Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His films include Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch. His most recent projects are the movie Asteroid City with Focus Features, released in June 2023; and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar with Netflix.

From 2021, Cartier partners with la Biennale di Venezia to become Main Sponsor of the Venice International Film Festival and jointly contribute to supporting contemporary film creation. As part of this collaboration, and from that year onwards, Venice International Film Festival and Cartier will pay tribute to outstanding filmmakers through the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry. The award ceremony will take place in Lido di Venezia and it will be a unique occasion to celebrate talent, creativity, and emotion. Art and culture have always been intimately linked to the history of Cartier. This collaboration with one of the most renowned international cultural events builds on the Maison’s long-lasting commitments to preserve cultural heritage and support contemporary artistic creation.