Venice Sets ‘Halloween Kills’ Screening; Jamie Lee Curtis Golden Lion – Deadline

The 78th Venice Film Festival will this year award a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to American actress Jamie Lee Curtis. The ceremony will take place on September 8 at the Sala Grande before the out-of-competition world premiere screening of David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills. Venice runs September 1-11 on the Lido.

Halloween Kills is the follow-up to 2018’s Halloween, which saw Curtis reprise her iconic role as Laurie Strode and took over $250M worldwide to become the highest-grossing chapter in the four-decade franchise.

From Universal Pictures, Miramax, Blumhouse Productions and Trancas International Films, Halloween Kills starts global rollout on October 14 via Universal. The official trailer was released last week (check it out here).

Said Curtis of the Lifetime Achievement, “I am incredibly humbled to be honored in this way by the Venice International Film Festival. It seems impossible to me that I’ve been in this industry long enough to be receiving ‘Lifetime Achievement’ recognition, and to have it happen now, with Halloween Kills, is particularly meaningful to me. Halloween — and my partnership with Laurie Strode — launched and sustained my career, and to have these films evolve into a new franchise that is beloved by audiences around the world was, and remains, a gift. Italian Cinema has always honored and heralded the genre that gave me my career, so I couldn’t be more proud and happy to accept this award from the Venice International Film Festival on behalf of Laurie and all the courageous heroines of the world who stand tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and refuse to yield.”

Said fest Director Alberto Barbera, “Jamie Lee Curtis belongs to that rarefied group of Hollywood actors who best reflect the qualities that are the very soul of the global film industry and its legacy. A direct descendant of America’s film aristocracy — she is the daughter of two unforgettable stars, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh — Jamie Lee Curtis is the natural embodiment of a star who knows how to play roles with versatility and amenability, all while infusing them with her peerless charisma and signature personality. All these qualities, combined with her work as an author of children’s books and her commitment to her charitable work have cemented her status as an indelible and enduring global artist. To date, her extraordinary four-decade career, which began with her dazzling debut in John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween, encompasses more than forty feature films and reminds us that true talent, combined with intelligence, wit, endurance and sheer grit, are the hallmarks of this true and unforgettable star.”

In addition to the Halloween movies, Curtis’ career spans almost every genre of film, including the recent Knives Out and classic comedies A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places and Freaky Friday; as well as action pics True Lies and Blue Steel; and dramas The Tailor Of Panama, My Girl and Forever Young.

Curtis is also a New York Times best-selling children’s book author. Her 12th book, Me, MySelfie & I: A Cautionary Tale, was released in 2018.