Almodovar to Receive Venice Film Festival Career Achievement

The Spanish Oscar-winning writer and director Pedro Almod�var will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival.

The decision from the board of the Biennale di Venezia, follows a proposal by the festival's director, Alberto Barbera.

Almodovar, whose film credits include 1999's All About My Mother and 2002's Talk to Her , said Friday he has good memories of Venice, where he made his international debut in 1983: "This Lion is going to become my pet, along with the two cats I live with."

Barbera praised Almod�var as "the greatest and most influential Spanish director since Bu�uel" and "a filmmaker who has offered us the most multifaceted, controversial, and provocative portraits of post-Franco Spain."

The 76th Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.