Tim Burton to Receive Career David di Donatello Award in Italy

The director will be honored with Italy's top film award as his new film 'Dumbo' hits theaters.

Filmmaker Tim Burton is set to receive a career David di Donatello award for Cinematic Excellence. He'll be honored with the award in person at the 64th edition of the David di Donatello awards, Italy's top film awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Italian Cinema, which will be broadcast on state television channel RAI 1 on March 27.

Burton will receive his award one day before the Italian release of his new live-action Disney film Dumbo. The highly anticipated film about a flying elephant at a seedy circus stars Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Alan Arkin and Nico Parker.

The two-time Academy Award-nominated director has a global cult following, with his films overall grossing more than $1.8 billion. His numerous iconic films include Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland and Big Eyes.

His film Big Fish was nominated for a David di Donatello award in 2004 for best foreign film.

“It is a great honor for us to award Tim Burton with the David for Cinematic Excellence 2019, celebrating his extraordinary creative power and his versatile talent which is expressed in many of his masterpieces," said Piera Detassis, president and artistic director of the Academy of Italian Cinema — David di Donatello Awards.

"Burton is one of the greatest innovators of cinema history. His work is the visionary continuation of a great cultural tradition from Edgar Allan Poe, expressionism and surrealism, illustration and comics, up to digital art."

"The result is a deep poetry," added Detassis. "With gloomy irony, the tale of present figures and themes emerges, most of all the fear of the 'other' and the empathy with what is different, the monster, the difficulty and the need to find a reconciliation with excluded and misunderstood people.”