British actress Vanessa Redgrave will receive the prestigious Golden Lion career prize at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Each year, the Venice Biennale awards two prizes to celebrate careers in cinema, one to a movie director and one to an actor or actress. Together with Redgrave, Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg will receive the Golden Lion at the festival, which runs Aug. 29-Sept. 8.

Redgrave, a six-time Oscar-nominated actress, won the Academy Award in 1978 for her performance in "Julia." She won a Tony Award for best actress in a play for "Long Day's Journey into Night" in 2003.

In a statement released Tuesday by organizers, Redgrave said she was "extraordinarily happy" to learn about the prize.

Venice festival organizers are to release the lineup for the film festival on Wednesday.