Liliana Cavani to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the Lucca Film Festival 2026

Italian filmmaker and screenwriter Liliana Cavani will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 22nd Lucca Film Festival, taking place in the Tuscan city from 26 September to 4 October 2026. Under the artistic direction of Nicola Borrelli and made possible with the support of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, the festival has already announced a Lifetime Achievement Award for American filmmaker and artist Julian Schnabel.

Born in Carpi, in the province of Modena, Cavani studied Classics at the University of Bologna before graduating from Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. She began directing documentaries for Italian public broadcaster RAI in 1962. Among them was Philippe Pétain: processo a Vichy, which received the Golden Lion for Documentary at the Venice Film Festival in 1965. Cavani made her feature-length debut in 1966 with the television film Francesco d’Assisi, starring Lou Castel. The film was presented at the Venice Film Festival and later named Best Film at the Valladolid International Film Festival. Throughout her career, Cavani has repeatedly turned to historical figures whose lives and ideas continue to resonate with the present, approaching them as models of non-violent resistance to established orders. This interest also shaped Galileo (1968), made for the cinema and selected for competition in Venice, where the portrait of the scientist is accompanied by the restless presence of Giordano Bruno. After I cannibali (1970), L’ospite (1971) and Milarepa (1973), Cavani achieved worldwide critical and public recognition with Il portiere di notte (1974), starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling. Its depiction of the relationship between a former SS officer and a former concentration camp prisoner sparked intense international debate. In 1977, she directed Al di là del bene e del male, exploring the personal relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Lou Andreas-Salomé. This was followed by La pelle (1981), adapted from Curzio Malaparte’s novel and selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Cavani returned to Venice in 1982 with Oltre la porta, another work examining the subject of madness. Her internationally acclaimed Interno berlinese (1985), adapted from a novel by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, was presented at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1986. She later returned to the Venice Film Festival with Dove siete? Io sono qui (1993), for which Anna Bonaiuto received the Volpi Cup for Best Supporting Actress, and again in 2002 with the thriller Il gioco di Ripley, starring John Malkovich. Cavani revisited the figure of Saint Francis in 1989 with Francesco, starring Mickey Rourke and presented at Cannes, and once again in 2014 with a new television film produced for RAI. Her short film Clarisse was presented in Venice in 2012 and received the Pasinetti Award. That same year, Cavani was honoured with a Special David di Donatello. In 2023, she directed L’ordine del tempo, whose screenplay was developed with the participation of physicist Carlo Rovelli. Later that year, Cavani received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

A century of cinema through the figure of Saint Francis

To mark the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, from 1226 to 2026, the Lucca Film Festival will present a special series of screenings at the Complesso di San Micheletto and Cinema Centrale. The programme will explore cinematic representations of Saint Francis and, more broadly, the Franciscan imagination as part of a shared cultural, spiritual and civic heritage. The series will include two of the three films Cavani has directed about the saint: her 1966 television film Francesco d’Assisi, starring Lou Castel, and the restored version of her 1989 theatrical feature Francesco, starring Mickey Rourke and restored by Cinecittà Luce.

“Eight centuries on, Francis remains a figure of extraordinary complexity and strength, one who continues to confront the present with profound questions,” said Massimo Marsili, President of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. “With this project, the Foundation has created Francesco. Ottocento anni dopo, a programme celebrating the remarkable figure of Francis, both man and saint, through literature, history, poetry and now cinema. We believe that exploring different artistic languages allows us to encounter different perspectives and nuances. “For this edition, the Lucca Film Festival, with which we have enjoyed a productive relationship for many years, has developed a series of particular significance. It traces the figure and legacy of Francis across more than a century of cinema, showing how his character and values have been reinterpreted according to the different sensibilities of each period. It offers a valuable opportunity to engage more deeply with his message.”

The series forms part of a wider multidisciplinary tribute to Saint Francis organised by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca in partnership with the city’s leading festivals and cultural institutions. Through a range of artistic languages, the programme aims to highlight the continuing relevance of themes such as voluntary poverty, fraternity, humanity’s relationship with the natural world and ethical responsibility towards others. Spanning silent cinema and contemporary reinterpretations, the selected films cover more than a century of moving-image history. Together, they portray Francis as a spiritual icon, a historical figure, a figure of popular mythology and a reflection of the values and concerns of each era. A screening will be held every day throughout the festival.

Titles in the programme include the silent film Frate Sole, directed by Ugo Falena and Mario Corsi (Italy, 1918); Roberto Rossellini’s Francesco, giullare di Dio (Italy, 1950); Michael Curtiz’s Francesco d’Assisi (USA, 1961); Franco Zeffirelli’s Fratello sole, sorella luna (Italy/United Kingdom, 1972); and Il sogno di Francesco, directed by Renaud Fély and Arnaud Louvet (France/Belgium/Italy, 2016).

Matteo Berton creates the official 2026 festival poster

The official poster for the 2026 Lucca Film Festival has been created by Matteo Berton, an Italian artist based in Paris. Berton regularly works with leading international publications and clients across publishing, advertising and visual communication, creating award-winning covers, posters and editorial projects that have established him as a distinctive voice in contemporary illustration.

“Working on the poster for LFF26 immediately felt like a special opportunity to portray a city to which I am deeply connected and which I consider home,” Berton said. “I began with a distilled version of the geometry of the façade of San Francesco, which became the grid for the entire composition. Sharp cuts of light and shadow allowed me to break the image down further into flat areas of colour. “Within this structure, every curved line becomes more pronounced, giving me room to play with the irregular contours of the panther. The result is a moment suspended between reality and dream.”

The 22nd Lucca Film Festival

Alongside its special events, the 2026 Lucca Film Festival will feature its international feature-length and short-film competitions, as well as the LFF For Future competition, launched in 2023.