Nicola Peltz Beckham’s Venice moment arrived in deep purple, with a train long enough to sweep the carpet clean: the actor picked up the Rising Star award at the Hollywood Reporter-covered Kinéo Awards on 5 September, one of the parallel ceremonies that run alongside the 83rd Venice Film Festival without holding any official affiliation with it.
The ceremony has existed since 2002, but this edition carried extra weight: it marked the 25th anniversary of the Kinéo Awards, conceived by Kinéo Cultural Association president Rosetta Sannelli and presented in partnership with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The evening was held at Casa Cinema Giovani, with a private dinner following at Hotel Ca’ Sagredo.
A ceremony with serious company
Peltz Beckham was not the only one collecting hardware. Oscar winner Faye Dunaway received a lifetime achievement honour at the same event, recognised for a career spanning Bonnie and Clyde, Network, Chinatown, and Mommie Dearest, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Director Paul Thomas Anderson was also among the honourees, per Selig Film News, as was Spanish actor Miguel Ángel Silvestre, reflecting the ceremony’s international reach, as listed on the Kinéo Awards official summary.
The Kinéo is independent, so placing Peltz Beckham alongside Dunaway and Anderson is the ceremony’s own editorial call rather than a Venice jury verdict. That distinction is worth keeping in mind. What the awards do trade on is visibility: a red carpet, a Venice dateline, and a guest list that gets photographed.
On that count, the evening delivered. Peltz Beckham arrived in a deep-purple, one-shouldered Balenciaga gown: hooded, with a twisted scarf-like bodice and a ruched drop-waist skirt that flared into a voluminous, floor-grazing train. Brooklyn Beckham stood beside her in a black tuxedo and polished monk-strap shoes, tending to her flyaways, holding her hand, and planting kisses on her cheek as the cameras went to work. It was, by any measure, a masterclass in being photographed together.
Nicola Peltz Beckham Venice outing caps a quieter spell
The Venice trip follows a period of deliberate restraint. Apart from a joint appearance at Elton John’s Oscars viewing party in March, the couple have largely stayed out of the frame in recent months. This is, to put it gently, out of character for two people who have never really known obscurity: Brooklyn has been photographed since his baby pictures ran in OK! magazine, and Peltz Beckham made her screen debut at 11, some 20 years ago, in the Christmas comedy Deck the Halls.
The Kinéo citation described her as someone who ‘has attracted growing international attention thanks to increasingly multifaceted roles, both in front of and behind the camera.’ A formulation that sidesteps the more colourful chapter of her recent press coverage, namely a very public family dispute, with the diplomacy of a well-briefed publicist.
Brooklyn, for his part, has been less circumspect about his priorities. ‘She changed my whole life around,’ he told British Vogue in 2025. ‘She’s my best friend, and being married to her is like a never-ending playdate. I fall more in love with her more and more every day. Find that one person, hold onto them, and never let go. It is the most important thing you can do.’
Meanwhile, the main Venice competition had its own conclusion. The Golden Lion for Best Film went to Woman Unknown, directed by Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy, with the jury led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s full winners list. George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement on the festival’s official side.
Whether Venice represents a genuine re-entry into public life or simply a well-timed detour is a question only the next few months will answer. The Kinéo award is a beginning, not a verdict.
