The DVF Awards Venice 2026 ceremony on 3 September became something more than a glittering festival fixture the moment Gloria Steinem died the day before it took place. Diane von Furstenberg, receiving guests barefoot on a chaise lounge in the Palazzo Brandolini (the Grand Canal catching the last of the afternoon light outside) had already decided whom the night belonged to.
Steinem died on 2 September 2026 in New York at the age of 92, according to B-EMPIRE Magazine. When a phone call interrupted von Furstenberg’s morning to raise the question of how prominently Steinem’s name would appear in the evening’s tribute, she was unequivocal. “It’s not respectful,” she said of the small wording. “I want it big.”
DVF Awards Venice 2026: What the Evening Stood For
The Teatro Carlo Goldoni, gilded tiers, coral velvet, the kind of room that makes you feel like you’re inside a jewellery box, hosted the 17th annual ceremony. Von Furstenberg called this year’s five honorees “the very best of humanity”: Jane Fonda; Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados; photojournalist Lynsey Addario; Wawira Njiru of Food4Education; and Gisèle Pelicot, who waived her anonymity so that, in her own words, shame would change sides.
“Courage can take many forms,” Pelicot said at the ceremony. “The courage to refuse injustice. The courage to pass on knowledge.” Fonda, introduced by Anita Hill, spoke of Steinem living on “in the changed lives of so many women, including my own,” then produced the line of the week: “Hope is a muscle when you use it.”
The awards have run since 2010, according to Vogue, and the criteria have not shifted: “The courage to fight, the strength to survive, and the leadership to inspire.” Von Furstenberg says the standard was inspired by her mother. Each honoree also receives $100,000 towards their nonprofit organisation, per Vogue, a detail that tends to get lost beneath the photographs but rather sharpens the point of the whole exercise.
The Awards began as her son’s idea, von Furstenberg explained, and became real when Tina Brown asked for help with her Women in the World summit. Seventeen years on, the format holds. Her advice on becoming the woman you want to be was characteristically direct: “The most important dialogue is the dialogue you have with yourself. That’s the only way to own it. That’s the only way to be in charge.”
Clooney, Gyllenhaal and the AI Question Nobody Quite Resolved
The morning after the DVF Awards Venice 2026 ceremony, a different conversation was taking place at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia. Finch & Partners and CAA convened a forum titled “The Future of… Creativity,” with Emily Maitlis moderating. Maggie Gyllenhaal, presiding over this year’s competition jury while premiering her Marilyn Monroe film Flesh Impact, described how her backers had pushed her to use AI: train it on Monroe, map the face onto Dakota Johnson’s. “We worked very hard at it,” she said, “and in the end, they threw it away, because what was coming through Dakota was so much more moving, human, alive.”
George Clooney, fresh from collecting his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, allowed that “some portion” of actors will be replaced by the technology. Sculptor Kennedy Yanko offered a different frame entirely: “Preciousness is the future.” Her abstractions, she said, are meant to be felt rather than understood. “You get to feel the feeling without knowing the story.”
Ellen Burstyn, whose film Place to Be premiered at the festival, joined by video from Airelles Palladio, the recently opened resort. A fall weeks earlier had left her on a walker, so she’d missed the opening ceremony and was resting ahead of Sunday, when she would collect her own Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. She was pleased that Laura Dern had presented Clooney’s award. Seventy years into her career, what’s still on the list? “One of the great Shakespearean roles. Maybe in Central Park.”
After the Goldoni ceremony, the evening crossed the water to Palazzo Franchetti for dinner, then on to Aman Venice, where Helen Hoehne, president of the Golden Globes, spoke plainly about the ceremony’s ambitions beyond its usual single night in Beverly Hills. “Venice is an important step in that evolution,” she said. Von Furstenberg had said Venice is a woman. This particular week, the city made a strong case.
