Jaeger-LeCoultre Prize x La Biennale di Venezia

La Biennale di Venezia and Jaeger-LeCoultre recently announced American director Abel Ferrara (Pasolini, Bad Lieutenant, King of New York) as the winner of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The award is dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.

With regards to this acknowledgment, the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barberahas stated: “One of the many merits of Abel Ferrara, who is widely held in esteem despite his reputation as one of the most controversial filmmakers in contemporary cinema, is his undeniable consistency and allegiance to his personal approach, inspired by the principles of independent cinema even when the director had the opportunity to work on more traditional productions.”

On Ferrara’s career, Barberahas had to say: “From his first low-budget films, influenced directly by the New York scene populated by immigrants, artists, musicians, students and drug addicts, through his universally recognized masterpieces – The King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Body Snatchers (1994) – to his most recent works, increasingly introspective and autobiographical, Ferrara has brought to life a personal and exclusive universe. From the original conflicts between guilt and innocence, redemption and religion, sin and betrayal that prevailed in his cinema for so long, along with the portrayal of abject, urban violence in the nocturnal metropolis, Ferrara has arrived at original speculations on the end of the world and the impossibility of finding meaning in the relationship between individuals and society. All this confirms him to be one of the most interesting and unreconciled directors of the moment.”

Watch the trailer for Sportin’ Life here