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George Clooney accepts Venice’s Golden Lion with a forceful warning against fear and authoritarianism Image: AFP.
🇲🇽 Mexico /Elections & Politics

George Clooney accepts Venice’s Golden Lion with a forceful warning against fear and authoritarianism

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • George Clooney received the honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the opening of the Venice Film Festival.
  • In his speech, he criticized powerful people who encourage citizens to fear and distrust one another, and defended journalists and artists who resist easy answers.
  • Clooney said films cannot stop wars or lower inflation, but can remind audiences to see empathy and humanity in strangers.

George Clooney accepted Venice’s honorary Golden Lion with a message aimed at those who use fear to divide people. At the opening of the Mostra, the 65-year-old actor, producer and director said powerful and wealthy people were telling citizens to fear and distrust one another.

We are living in a moment when those who have power, those who have more money, tell us that we should be afraid of one another, that we should distrust one another. But we know that is not so, right?

— George ClooneyHis Golden Lion acceptance speech at the opening of the Venice Film Festival.

“But we know that is not so, right?” Clooney told the audience. He argued that history shows whom authoritarians try to silence first: journalists who ask questions and artists who refuse easy answers. Filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians, he said, insist that someone we have never met still deserves our empathy.

“Stories are always dangerous to those who use fear,” Clooney added. He said people who fear books, music and stories are never the heroes of history. Films may not stop wars, bring down inflation or fix elections, he said, but they can remind people that a stranger is never truly a stranger and may be the hero of someone else’s story.

The first people authoritarians try to silence are not politicians. They are journalists who ask questions. They are artists who refuse to accept easy answers.

— George ClooneyHis defense of journalists and artists in the award speech.

Clooney also looked back on more than four decades in the film industry with a self-deprecating account of his career. In retrospect, he said, it might appear that he had a plan, but most of the time he was simply trying to make ends meet. He credited a director who saw something in him, a screenwriter who gave him better lines than he deserved, and a crew member who made him appear to know what he was doing.

Stories are always dangerous to those who use fear.

— George ClooneyHis argument that storytelling challenges fear-based politics.

He called it an honor to belong to the seventh art and spoke warmly about his wife, Lebanese activist and lawyer Amal Clooney, and their nine-year-old twins, joking that he could not say how much he loved both of them, “at least one of them.” Laura Dern presented the award. Clooney has long ties to Venice, where he married in 2014 and first appeared at the festival in 1998 in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight.

At least one of them.

— George ClooneyA joke while speaking about his love for his wife and their two children.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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