Wajda to receive Venice Persol award

Venice will present the 2013 Persol prize to Polish director Andrzej Wajda.

The award will be presented on Sept 5, before the out of competition screening of Wajda’s latest film Walesa. Man of Hope.

Wajda’s films include Man of Iron, Ashes And Diamonds, The Promised Land, The Young Girls of Wilko and Katyn.

Venice film festival director Alberto Barbera said: “Wajda is not just the most emblematic director in post-war Polish filmmaking. He is the director who has been capable, in his work (over 50 films in his more than sixty-year career), of raising the most decisive and important questions about the history of his country, and consequently, of Europe in its entirety, inviting us to reflect on the critical relationship between personal experiences and those of an entire nation, between the anguish that often befalls individual destinies and the weight of the collective task they are called upon to accomplish.”

Persolis sponsoring Venice for the 9th year.

Fabio d’Angelantonio, Chief Marketing Officer of the Luxottica Group, added: “We are proud to continue our successful collaboration with the Venice International Film Festival at the Biennale di Venezia. The Persol style embraces the values of the most authentic tradition of handmade art and this makes Persol an unsurpassed benchmark for prestige accessories. We believe that Venice is the ideal venue to celebrate, in a perfect setting, the film talent that best expresses the Persol style”.