The Italian actress Sophia Loren, who will celebrate her 87th birthday, days before, will receive the inaugural ‘Visionary Award’ from the Academy’s new museum.
The opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles has been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic.
Oscar-winning Italian actress Sophia Loren will receive the inaugural ‘Visionary Award’ alongside Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima who will receive the ‘Vantage Award.’
Visionary Award
The Visionary Award acknowledges an “extensive body of work [that] has advanced the art of cinema,” stated the museum. The museum added that the new awards “reflected its mission to celebrate and advance the understanding of the diverse and varied stories of cinema and cinematic artists.”
Loren is set to receive the award on 25 September during a gala event at the Los Angeles museum. The seven-storey building, designed by celebrated Italian architect Renzo Piano, is located on the ‘Miracle Mile’. The museum opens to the public on 30th September.
Loren’s awards
Sophia Loren won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Cesira in La Ciociara (1961). She was the first actor or actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film.
Loren holds the record for having earned seven David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress. She has won five special Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award); a BAFTA Award; a Laurel Award; a Grammy Award; the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, she received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements.
Most recently she played the lead role as Madame Rosa in La Vita Davanti a Sé (The Life Ahead) directed by her son Edoardo Ponti.