Ellen Burstyn to receive Liberatum Pioneer Award at Venice Film Festival

Oscar, Emmy and Tony-award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn will receive the prestigious Liberatum Pioneer Award at this year's Venice Film Festival, in recognition of her contributions to cinema.

The 91-year-old star of The Exorcist will be honoured at a special Women in Creativity event and gala dinner on 4 September, stepping in the footsteps of Black Panther star Angela Bassett and the Brazilian activist Ivete Sacramento, who were both honoured with the Liberatum award last year.

Burstyn started on Broadway in 1957 with her debut in Fair Game. She later transitioned to TV, before breaking onto the big screen with Oscar-nominated performances in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show in 1971 and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist in 1973, in which she played Chris MacNeil, the mother of the possessed Regan.

Last year, she reprised the role in the sequel The Exorcist: Believer.

She won the Oscar for Best Actress in Martin Scorsese’s romantic drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and won the Tony Award for Best Actress the following year for Same Time, Next Year.

She was nominated for more Academy Awards with her performances in Daniel Petrie’s Resurrection (1980) and Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000).

Burstyn has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her guest actress spot on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2009 and for Best Supporting Actress in a miniseries for Greg Berlanti’s Political Animals in 2013. She was nominated six more times, for her roles in Pack of Lies (1988), Mrs. Harris (2005), Big Love (2008), Flowers in the Attic (2014) and House of Cards (2016).

The 81st Venice Film Festival runs from 28 August to 7 September.