Venice Film Festival honours Herzog with lifetime achievement award

German film director Werner Herzog is to receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the organizers announced on Tuesday.

Herzog said he was "deeply honoured" by the award.

"I have always tried to be a Good Soldier of Cinema, and this feels like a medal for my work. Thank you," he said. In his statement, he said he was continuing to work and had recently finished "Ghost Elephants," a documentary shot in Africa.

Festival director Alberto Barbera described Herzog as a major innovator of New German Cinema, listing his films "Signs of Life," "Nosferatu the Vampyre," "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," and "Fitzcarraldo," "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and "Grizzly Man."

Herzog has received numerous awards in the past. Looking ahead, he said he was shooting his next feature film, "Bucking Fastard," in Ireland, developing an animated film based on his novel, "The Twilight World," and voicing a creature in Bong Joon Ho's upcoming animated film.

"I am not done yet," the 82-year-old director said.

In his statement, Barbera said Herzog's career involved total commitment and taking physical risk, "where catastrophe constantly lurks."

He described the director as a brilliant narrator of unusual stories and the last heir of the great tradition of German romanticism.

The festival is being held from August 27 to September 6.