Director David Lynch picked up his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival yesterday.
Known for his unorthodox - and occasionally baffling - films, including Mullholland Drive and Blue Velvet, Lynch is, at 60, the youngest ever recipient of the award.
The Festival board said in a statement: "With his visionary and disturbing style, he is one of the directors who has most strongly influenced our contemporary imagination, developing his coherent artistic career at the borders of the Hollywood industry, and fascinating the wider public with his experimentalism."
The director is in the Italian city to promote his latest film Inland Empire. At almost three hours long, it has a web of plotlines - both real and fantasy - centring on a Hollywood actress (Laura Dern)and is described by Lynch as "a story of a woman in love who is in danger".
The film, which also stars Jeremy Irons and Harry Dean Stanton, does not have a UK release date yet.
For further details of the festival, visit the official site.
