David Strathairn at the Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion Awards (2005) - photo copyright © respective owners

Overview: David Strathairn attended the opening night of the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2005 for the world premiere of his film Good Night, And Good Luck, directed by George Clooney. Throughout the ongoing ten day festival, David took part in several PR junkets and interviews for the film. Lastly, he attended the closing night awards ceremony of the festival (the Golden Lion Awards) with George Clooney and co-producer Grant Heslov on September 10, 2005. Clooney and Heslov won the Osella Award for Best Screenplay for the film whilst David, deservedly, won the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actor for his stirring performance as Edward R. Murrow. Excerpts from his acceptance speech are below:

David was quoted as stating that the movie was a reminder of the responsibility of journalists, addressing his remarks to "all of you here, and all of those who will see this movie, all of those who are out there trying to bring truth to all of us so that we can make better decisions about our lives." Reading his acceptance speech in Italian, David said, "At the core of this is what Edward R. Murrow said. Three-fifths of our script was from him and that is the underlying effect." He also paid tribute to director George Clooney and co-producer Grant Heslov: "Without George and Grant, this film really could not have been made."

Related Links:
Venice Film Festival: Official Italian Site (off site)