By ALISON BOSHOFF, EDITOR AT LARGE and LILY JOBSON, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER
Published: 00:36 BST, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 01:56 BST, 3 September 2026
How do you celebrate when you're given a lifetime achievement award for your work in front of the camera? Well, if you're George Clooney, you get behind the camera instead.
The actor, 65, was honoured with the prestigious Golden Lion award as the Venice Film Festival opened last night.
But he swapped his film award for a film camera, borrowing a photographer's lens to take his own pictures instead.
Tiziana Fabi, a photographer with news agency Agence France-Presse, posed for Clooney while holding the actor's trophy.
Accepting the award, Clooney said it was an 'incredible honour' before joking: 'Do [the award committee] know something I don't?'
In a politicised speech, the star said we are 'living through a moment in time where people in charge… are telling us to fear one another'.
He continued: 'The first people that authoritarians try to shut down are not politicians. They're journalists who ask questions.
George Clooney was honoured with the prestigious Golden Lion award as the Venice Film Festival opened last night but he swapped his award for a film camera, borrowing a photographer's lens to take his own pictures instead
Clooney appeared on the red carpet with his wife Amal for the premiere of Danny Boyle's film Ink
Tiziana Fabi, a photographer with news agency Agence France-Presse, posed for Clooney while holding the actor's trophy
'They're the artists who refuse simple answers. They're the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians who insist that someone you have never met is deserving of your empathy. Stories are always dangerous to people who peddle in fear.'
Back on the other side of the lens, Clooney also appeared on the red carpet with his wife Amal for the premiere of Danny Boyle's film Ink. The actor dressed in a Giorgio Armani tuxedo, while Amal, 48, wore an elegant, black Tom Ford gown.
Ink, based on the 2017 play by James Graham, follows Rupert Murdoch's takeover of The Sun in 1969.
