Danny Boyle was celebrated with Variety’s Creative Impact in Directing Award on Monday during a Venice Film Festival pre-opening night party at the poolside terrace of the Hotel Excelsior.
The Oscar-winning British filmmaker is set to open the festival on Wednesday night with “Ink,” a juicy exposé of how British tabloid The Sun propelled Rupert Murdoch’s rise to right-wing media baron. In his speech, Boyle praised Venice chief Alberto Barbera for his “courage” in choosing “Ink” as opener.
“When Alberto rang up to say that this film was going to open the Venice Film Festival, I thought he was insane,” Boyle said, adding that “Ink” is “the oddest film that’s ever opened Venice.”
“There are directors who are able to utilize their craft to present us a world. Then there are directors like Danny Boyle, who know how to take us inside a world,” said Jack O’Connell, who stars in “Ink” as The Sun editor Larry Lamb, in presenting the award to Boyle.
“Danny has always had a remarkable and unique instinct for capturing the mood of Britain and its people, from directing ‘Trainspotting’ to staging the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, he has repeatedly found ways to reflect something essential about the country at a particular moment in time,” O’Connell added.
