VENICE AWARDS: The DVF Awards are returning to Venice.
On Thursday, Diane von Furstenberg will again celebrate the work of extraordinary women, and this year she will be flanked by Oprah Winfrey as a presenter.
The DVF Awards in Venice will coincide with the 60th Art Biennale and the 81st Venice Film Festival.
This year the honorees of the 15th edition will include Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand; cofounder of Women Wage Peace Yael Admi; cofounder and director of Women of the Sun Reem Al-Hajajreh; climate justice activist and cofounder of Re-Earth Initiative Xiye Bastida; Alessandra Kustermann, reproductive rights advocate and president of SVS Donna Help Donna, and women’s and children’s rights advocate, and founder of the Graça Machel Trust and the Foundation for Community Development, Graça Machel.
Italian actress and director Paola Cortellesi will also present the awards.
“It is a great privilege to know and to honor these incredible women who have the courage to fight, the strength to survive and the leadership to inspire,” said von Furstenberg. “This is a special milestone, the 15th anniversary, and I am so happy to celebrate in Venice, a city that is close to my heart and is herself an extraordinary woman.”
The DVF Awards were created in 2010 by the designer and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognize and support extraordinary women who are dedicated to transforming and inspiring the lives of other women, granting each honoree $100,000 for their nonprofit organization in order to further their work.
Over the years the DVF Awards have amplified the voices of women from more than 30 countries with grants to further their work in the areas of climate change, immigration, fighting human trafficking, promoting gender equality and preventing violence against women.
To mark the anniversary, the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, through funding support provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will honor five past honorees with an additional grant. They are Susan Burton, Nadia Murad, Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, Maria Pacheco and Veronika Scott.
The event will include a performance by Freya Ridings.
Last year, among others, an award was bestowed to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who attended with her husband George Clooney. Guests included U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rita Ora, who gave an award to actor, producer, writer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lilly Singh. Emma Thomson bestowed the DVF Leadership Award on Helena Gualinga, an environmental and human rights defender who advocates for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous people’s rights.
