Kim Novak Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Venice Film Festival

Kim Novak is receiving a special honor.

The 92-year-old Hollywood legend accepted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in Italy on Monday, Sept. 1.

Novak stepped out for the event in a rare appearance days after arriving at the festival, as she was presented with the award by director Guillermo del Toro, whose Frankenstein world premiered at the event over the weekend.

Novak added in a press release that she is “deeply touched” to receive the honor. “To be recognized for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true. I will treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy,” the acting veteran said.

Novak’s arrived at the Venice International Film Festival on Aug. 28, marking her first major public appearance in a decade. Her award reception comes as her new biographic documentary, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, premiered the same day at the festival.

Novak’s manager and executive producer of the film, Sue Cameron, told PEOPLE, “This documentary has been a dream of mine for over 15 years. I wanted her to be able to experience all of the stardom all over again.”

Novak is best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1950s psychological mystery Vertigo. She became a prominent actress in the decades that followed before finally stepping down from acting in the 1980s.

Cameron shared with PEOPLE that the documentary was shot at Novak’s home in Oregon, where she retired to after her acting career.

“I think it’s truly a masterpiece, and really represents who Kim is,” Cameron added of the film. “Nobody knows who she really is, nobody knows what she went through, the disasters in her childhood, and we cover all of that.” 

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Novak told PEOPLE in 2021 about her decision to leave Hollywood, “I had to leave to survive … Ilost a sense of who I truly was and what I stood for. I fought all the time back in Hollywood to keep my identity so you do whatever you have to do to hold on to who you are and what you stand for.”