Actor Brad Pitt did not take the stage at the Lido on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, yet he still managed to land a punchline there at the expense of actor, director and producer George Clooney. Pitt’s written tribute to his longtime friend — read aloud by actress Laura Dern as Clooney accepted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the opening ceremony of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival — praised nearly everything the two-time Oscar winner has ever attempted, then singled out the one thing Pitt says he cannot do.
Pitt’s note argued that Clooney outdoes everyone around him at almost any pursuit, with one exception: “please, keep him off the dance floor,” Dern read. Elsewhere the letter painted Clooney as a pigeon-toed Kentucky native who had grown into an elder statesman, a man who would run across town to pick up any trophy being handed out — and the star producers call when Pitt is unavailable.
Pitt raised the question of why Hollywood is so fond of Clooney and then answered it himself, coming back around at the end to the dancing: “He’s a rogue, a prankster, an altruist, an actor, an athlete, the only guy you want in a crisis, a father, a husband, a global citizen, a defender of justice and a really bad dancer.”
Dern Delivers the Tribute
The ceremony took place in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema, at an edition of the festival that continues through September 12. Dern — an Oscar winner who appears opposite Clooney in director Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama “Jay Kelly” — was not delivering Pitt’s words alone. She also read messages from actor Adam Sandler, filmmakers Steven Soderbergh and Alexander Payne, Baumbach himself and Bryan Lourd, the Creative Artists Agency partner who has represented Clooney for years.
Speaking for herself, Dern described Clooney as a person of profound humanity and integrity, someone devoted to service and truth who makes films meant to leave audiences better than he found them. She pointed to his Academy Award nominations across six separate categories, called him a giving scene partner who watches out for the actors around him and pulls for them, and reminded the audience that People has twice voted him “Sexiest Man Alive.” “He’s the best friend you could ever have and the funniest person you will ever meet,” Dern said. Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, both teared up during the tribute.
The evening carried an odd symmetry. Dern and Clooney first worked together more than 40 years ago on the horror sequel “Grizzly II: Revenge,” shot in Hungary when both were starting out. Organizers also screened an extended clip from “Jay Kelly,” in which Clooney’s character, a film star, is handed a career award at an Italian festival — a scenario that echoed the real ceremony playing out in the room. The picture, which also features Sandler and actor Billy Crudup, had its premiere in competition at Venice in 2025.
A Career Honored in Venice
La Biennale’s Board of Directors voted the honor on the recommendation of artistic director Alberto Barbera, who called Clooney a complete, charismatic artist in all three of his roles — actor, director and producer — and pointed to a body of work that moves through war films, thrillers, sophisticated comedies and science fiction, from “Three Kings” and “Syriana” to “Michael Clayton,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Gravity” and “Jay Kelly.” Clooney had called Venice his favorite festival in July, when the honor was announced, adding that a Golden Lion probably meant he was getting old but that he would take it anyway. Accepting it on Wednesday, he opened with a version of the same joke, saying a lifetime achievement award brings two things to mind: what an incredible honor it is, and “do they know something that I don’t?” He also told the room that anyone who trades in fear finds storytelling dangerous by its very nature.
Clooney has drawn eight Academy Award nominations and won twice — best supporting actor for “Syriana” and best picture as a producer of “Argo” — and no one in Oscar history has been nominated in as many different categories. His shelf also holds four Golden Globes, one of them the Cecil B. DeMille Award, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Emmy and an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. Nine features carry his name as director, including “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “The Ides of March,” and his Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night, and Good Luck” earned a Tony nomination; its CNN airing made it the first live Broadway performance televised as it happened.
The Lake Como resident knows the Lido well: his festival appearances date back to “Out of Sight” in 1998, and he wed Amal Alamuddin in the city in 2014.
Another ‘Ocean’s’ Reunion Takes Shape
Pitt and Clooney have spent decades needling one another. Each read for the part of J.D. in 1991’s “Thelma & Louise,” which went to Pitt, and the two grew close on the 2001 heist comedy “Ocean’s Eleven.” While shooting “Ocean’s Twelve” in Italy, Pitt circulated instructions telling crew members to address Clooney only as “Danny Ocean” or “Mr. Ocean” and to avoid eye contact. Their most recent film together was the 2024 thriller “Wolfs,” directed by Jon Watts and co-produced by Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures for Apple, which marked their first onscreen pairing since 2008’s “Burn After Reading” and premiered at Venice in 2024.
A further “Ocean’s” installment is still in the works. Clooney is expected back, and so are Pitt along with Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts; October 2026 has been floated as a target for the start of production, and no release date has been announced. In Venice, Clooney said he would be glad to work with Pitt and Damon again and that the cameras will roll as soon as everyone’s calendars line up. Separately, a Warner Bros. “Ocean’s” prequel starring Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper as Danny Ocean’s parents, directed by Cooper and set around the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix, is scheduled for release June 25, 2027.