STEVE MCQUEEN - MCQUEEN WINS VENICE PRIZE FOR HUNGER

MCQUEEN WINS VENICE PRIZE FOR HUNGER

British artist-turned-director STEVE MCQUEEN has won the 2008 Gucci Group Award at Italy's Venice Film Festival for his movie debut HUNGER.
The film details the final days of Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker Bobby Sands - played by 300 star Michael Fassbender - who died aged 27 in Maze Prison in Belfast, Ireland in 1981.
MCQueen beat competition from the likes of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly artist/director Julian Schnabel, and the Beastie Boys rapper Adam Yauch to land the gong, which honours filmmakers from other disciplines.
Accepting the award at the city's Palazzo Grassi on Tuesday (02Sep08), he told the audience, "I am very pleased and honoured to receive this award from the Gucci Group. And the fact that the award recognises the efforts of an artist who has broken into a different genre gives me great pleasure.
"We're living in a time and age where it is all about putting our cards on the table and going for it."
MCQueen also won praise for Hunger at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May (08), taking home the prestigious Camera d'Or prize.