James Franco to be feted by Venice Film Festival

Actor-director James Franco will receive the Venice Film Festival’s Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker award for 2014.

The prize is dedicated to “a personality who has made an original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema”.

Venice director Alberto Barbera said: “James Franco is one of the most versatile and multi-talented auteurs on the current American scene, as an actor in cinema and theatre, director, screenwriter, producer, soap-opera star, video-artist and much more – indeed, a relentless ‘manufacturer’ of cultural imagery.

“The adaptation of the great classics of American literature, like his new film based on a novel by Faulkner which will be presented in Venice, is a major thread in his creative approach, characterized by boldness, lucidity, courage and self-confidence. These values transform his omnivorous verve into a concept of total art performance, founded on considerable curiosity and intelligence”.

Franco’s film The Sound and the Fury, based on William Faulkner’s classic novel, will world premiere Out of Competition at the festival.

Franco stars in the drama alongside Scott Haze, Tim Blake Nelson, Joey King, Ahna O’Reilly, Seth Rogen and Jon Hamm.

The actor-director made his first Venice appearance as director and screenwriter in 2011 for Sal. At the Art Biennale that year he also presented the visual arts installation Rebel.

In 2012 he returned to the Lido as the star and producer of Spring Breakers by Harmony Korine (in Competition) and in 2013 he was at the festival as director and screenwriter of Child of God (in Competition), an adaptation of the novel by Cormac McCarthy, and as the star of Palo Alto by Gia Coppola (Orizzonti Section), based on a collection of short stories written by Franco.