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America’s Highest Honor for a Career in Film
to Be Presented at Gala Dinner on April 25, 2020
Tribute Will Premiere on TNT, Thursday, May 7 at 10pm ET/PT
The American Film Institute (AFI) Board of Trustees announced today that Dame Julie Andrews will be the recipient of the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film. The award will be presented to Andrews at a Gala Tribute on April 25, in Los Angeles, CA. The AFI Life Achievement Award has won Emmy® Awards across five decades in its 48-year run and will return for its eighth year with TNT, followed by encore presentations on sister network Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in the fall. Audi returns as an Official Sponsor of the event.
“Julie Andrews is practically perfect in every way,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “Her talents across time have inspired a shared sense of joy across generations, and her gifts to our cultural heritage are a testament to the power of this art form to bring us together when we need it most. AFI is proud to sing her praises with its 48th Life Achievement Award.”
A legendary actress of both stage and screen, Andrews has enchanted and delighted audiences around the world with her uplifting and inspiring body of work. She continues to captivate viewers in front of the camera, with her remarkable wit, characteristic grace and an incandescent and unmistakable voice all of her own — while also shining a light on humanitarian issues in her activism and philanthropic work.
A three-time Academy Award nominee, Andrews star turn in MARY POPPINS won her both a BAFTA and an Oscar®. From her early debut as Polly Browne in “The Boyfriend” to her critically-acclaimed Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway hit “My Fair Lady” to her timeless performance as Maria von Trapp in THE SOUND OF MUSIC to her groundbreaking dual roles in the gender-bending VICTOR/VICTORIA, Andrews has proven herself an accomplished and versatile actress. Throughout an illustrious career that spans seven decades, she has won five Golden Globes, three Grammys® and two Emmys® for projects infused with her incomparable charm and recognized for their ability to enthrall audiences worldwide. The critically lauded Andrews is also a Kennedy Center honoree, a Disney Legend inductee and the recipient of a SAG Life Achievement Award.
On stage and screen, she has delivered transcendent performances known for their elegance, artistry and humor, with additional acting credits including: “Camelot” (1960), THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964), TORN CURTAIN (1966), HAWAII (1966), THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967), STAR! (1968), 10 (1979), LITTLE MISS MARKER (1980), THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (1983), DUET FOR ONE (1986), ENCHANTED (2007) and AQUAMAN (2018). She has also starred in multiple, successful franchises, including THE PRINCESS DIARIES 1 and 2 (2001); SHREK 2 (2004), SHREK THE THIRD (2007) and SHREK FOREVER AFTER (2010); and DESPICABLE ME (2010) and DESPICABLE ME 3 (2017) and the upcoming MINIONS. Recently, Andrews was cast in Shonda Rhimes’ new Netflix series BRIDGERTON to play a sharp-tongued gossip writer in Regency London, marking her continued evolution as an actress and icon. Andrews’ second memoir, “Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years” — a follow-up to her successful 2008 New York Times Best Seller, “Home: A Memoir of My Early Years” — will be released October 15.
JUST POPPINS BY: #JulieAndrews arrives at the #VeniceFilmFestival where she’s collecting a #GoldenLion award for lifetime achievement. pic.twitter.com/7uo6imixJq
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) September 2, 2019
Oscar-winning actress and singer Julie Andrews will be honored by the Venice Film Festival with its Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement.
Best known for her iconic roles in “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music,” Andrews has starred in more than 40 movies, including a memorable performance as Victoria Grant and Count Victor Grezhinski in “Victor Victoria” (1982), which was directed by her late husband, Blake Edwards. He also directed Andrews in “10” (1979) and in “S.O.B.” (1981).
“This Golden Lion is the well-deserved recognition of an extraordinary career which has admirably parsed popular success with artistic ambition, without ever bowing to facile compromises,” Alberto Barbera, the Venice Film Festival’s artistic director, said in a statement.
“I am so honored to have been selected as this year’s recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement,” Andrews said, thanking the festival’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, “for this acknowledgment of my work.”
In 2010, Andrews starred as the Tooth Fairy Matriarch in Michael Lambeck’s “Tooth Fairy,” in a performance praised by Variety as “practically perfect in every way.” She has also recently played several voice roles in the “Shrek” and “Despicable Me” franchises and in recent Warner Bros. blockbuster “Aquaman.” She starred in 2001’s “The Princess Diaries” alongside Anne Hathaway, which was one of the most successful family films that year, and reprised her role as Queen Renaldi in 2004’s “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.”
Barbera said that, during the course of her career, Andrews has gone out of her way “to avoid remaining confined” to just being an icon of family movies, accepting roles that are “diverse, dramatic, provocative and imbued with scathing irony.” As examples of her range, Barbera cited Andrews’ early role as a war widow with a penchant for falling in love with soldiers in Arthur Hiller’s anti-war romcom “The Americanization of Emily,” as well as the comedies she made with Edwards.
Born in 1935 into a musical family in England, Andrews was already a stage star, first in Britain and subsequently on Broadway – where she was nominated for Tony Awards for her roles in “Camelot” and “My Fair Lady” – before “Mary Poppins,” for which she won an Oscar. She has been a beloved stage, screen, and TV star ever since.
The 76th Venice Film Festival will run Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/julie-andrews-venice-film-festival-lifetime-achievement-award-1203158233/?fbclid=IwAR2zsAW0LXRlCYcQ5-BwVtm5uHg0E2A6JKISlc-HdOnVjMp4EsSrKDCgBSU
The acknowledgement to the great English actress will be presented during the 76th Venice International Film Festival (28 August > 7 September 2019).
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 76th Venice International Film Festival has been awarded to the great English actress Julie Andrews, the star – among her many international successes – of classic movies beloved all the world over, such as Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Victor Victoria (1982), among many others.
The decision was made by the board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, which espoused the proposal made by the Director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera.
Julie Andrews, accepting the proposal, declared: “I am so honored to have been selected as this year’s recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The Venice Film Festival has long been recognized as one of the world’s most esteemed International Film Festivals. I thank La Biennale for this acknowledgement of my work and I look forward to being in that beautiful city in September for this very special occasion.”
Regarding this award, Alberto Barbera declared: “At a very young age, Ms Andrews made a name for herself in the music halls of London and, later, on Broadway thanks to her remarkable singing and acting talent. Her first Hollywood movie, Mary Poppins, gave her top-tier star status, which was later confirmed in another treasured film, The Sound of Music. Those two roles projected her into the Olympus of international stardom, making her an iconic figure adored by several generations of moviegoers. Above and beyond the different interpretations that can be given to her two most famous films (and highlighting the transgressive value of her characters rather than their apparent conservatism), it must be remembered that Andrews went out of her way to avoid remaining confined as an icon of family movies. She accepted roles that were diverse, dramatic, provocative and imbued with scathing irony. For example, The Americanization of Emily by Arthur Hiller, and the many movies directed by her husband Blake Edwards, with whom she formed a very profound and long-lasting artistic partnership, a marvelous example of human and professional devotion to a captivating esthetic project that prevailed over the commercial success of the individual movies. This Golden Lion is the well-deserved recognition of an extraordinary career which has admirably parsed popular success with artistic ambition, without ever bowing to facile compromises.”
Congrats to @JulieAndrews @SoundofMusic & @AnnaNetrebko on receiving the #AustrianAmericanFoundation’s Cultural Exchange Award 2018 for being such wonderful & unique cultural ambassadors for #Austria https://t.co/7OONKcp93F pic.twitter.com/GZHY0jfVX3
— WolfgangWaldner (@WaldnerWolfgang) May 2, 2018
