On September 6, one of the Venice Film Festival’s most anticipated nights returns. Pamela Anderson will receive the Award of Courage, Marina Abramović the Award of Inspiration. Taika Waititi will host, with Bebe Rexha and Mimi Webb performing
Some nights at the Venice Film Festival gradually develop a red carpet of their own, running parallel to the one outside the Palazzo del Cinema. amfAR Venezia has become one of them. On Sunday, September 6, 2026, as the 83rd Venice International Film Festival moves into one of its busiest weekends, the Foundation for AIDS Research will return to the lagoon with a gala bringing together cinema, contemporary art, music, high jewellery and philanthropy.
The sixth edition of amfAR Venezia will take place at the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice, on Giudecca. The latest major name announced is Pamela Anderson, who will receive the amfAR Award of Courage. She will be joined by Marina Abramović, recipient of the Award of Inspiration, while Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi will host the evening. Bebe Rexha will headline the musical entertainment, with British singer-songwriter Mimi Webb opening the gala.
The evening is one of the major new additions now completing the calendar of Venice 83: all the events, parties and galas of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, a social geography that this year stretches from the Lido to Giudecca, Piazza San Marco and some of Venice’s most prestigious palazzi.
Pamela Anderson: a different chapter of a global career
The decision to honour Pamela Anderson comes at an especially interesting point in her career. The pop-cultural image that made her one of the most recognisable personalities of the 1990s has, in recent years, given way to a more nuanced public and artistic chapter, defined by mature acting choices and an increasingly pared-back approach to the codes of celebrity that once surrounded her.
Her performance in The Last Showgirl earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, while the new The Naked Gun has further consolidated her return to mainstream cinema.
Venice will not, however, see Anderson only in the ballroom of the Molino Stucky. She also appears alongside Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi in Place to Be, directed by Kornél Mundruczó and included in the 2026 Venice Film Festival programme.
The film is among the titles featured in Milano Luxury Life’s complete guide to the 2026 Venice Film Festival, its films, guests and leading figures, in an edition expected to bring George Clooney, Ellen Burstyn, Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Orlando Bloom and many of international cinema’s most prominent names to the Lido.
The Award of Courage, however, recognises something beyond Anderson’s screen career. amfAR has highlighted the actress’s longstanding use of her public profile in support of social causes and advocacy campaigns. That intersection between celebrity and civic engagement has been one of the foundation’s defining characteristics for four decades.
Marina Abramović and a return to the city of her Golden Lion
The presence of Marina Abramović establishes an even deeper connection with Venice. The artist will receive amfAR’s Award of Inspiration, recognising both her cultural influence and her support for humanitarian causes.
Venice occupies a precise place in Abramović’s artistic biography. It was at the 1997 Venice Biennale that Balkan Baroque earned her the Golden Lion for Best Artist. Almost thirty years later, amfAR brings back to the city a figure who played a decisive role in moving performance art from the margins of the avant-garde into the programmes of the world’s leading museums and cultural institutions.
Her presence also changes the tone of the evening. amfAR Venezia is not simply a celebrity dinner organised during a film festival. Contemporary art is structurally embedded in the event, particularly through the live auction, where artworks and exceptional experiences become instruments of fundraising.
Bebe Rexha and Mimi Webb bring music to the gala
The evening’s principal musical performance will come from Bebe Rexha, who has previously supported amfAR initiatives. The singer arrives in Venice after a period in which she has continued to strengthen her artistic independence while maintaining the crossover between pop and electronic music that has marked collaborations with artists including David Guetta and Martin Garrix.
Mimi Webb will open the event, while Taika Waititi will take on hosting duties. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker, known for moving with unusual ease between independent cinema, major studio productions and contemporary pop culture, also creates another connection within the evening: both he and Pamela Anderson appear in Place to Be, which will screen at the Festival only a few days later.
The announced programme includes a cocktail reception, black-tie gala dinner, awards ceremony, musical performances and a live auction featuring contemporary artworks and unique experiences.
It is a formula that has transformed amfAR’s international events into something considerably more sophisticated than a conventional charity dinner: a platform where social capital, entertainment and the art market converge around fundraising for scientific research.
Chopard, World Gold Council and the luxury ecosystem surrounding amfAR
The luxury industry’s role is also visible in the structure of the event’s partnerships. World Gold Council will serve as Presenting Sponsor, Chopard returns as Signature Sponsor and Variety as Media Partner, while the Hilton Molino Stucky will host the evening.
Chopard’s involvement is particularly significant. High jewellery and major film festivals have developed an increasingly close relationship over the past two decades: jewellery on the red carpet, international ambassadors, awards, gala dinners and philanthropic initiatives now form a sophisticated reputational ecosystem.
Venice is one of the places where this relationship becomes most apparent. The value of a jewel is communicated not merely through the object itself, but through the personalities, settings and occasions with which it becomes associated.
amfAR offers one of the most refined examples of this mechanism. The maison is not simply attaching its name to a high-visibility event; it is participating in an evening whose fundraising has a specific scientific purpose.
Beyond the guest list: why the gala matters
Behind the spectacle lies the reason amfAR organises these events in the first place. The Foundation for AIDS Research finances scientific research, prevention and global health programmes as part of its longstanding mission to help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Since 1985, according to the foundation, amfAR has raised more than $950 million and awarded over 3,900 grants to research teams around the world.
Venice has gradually assumed an important place within this international fundraising network. In 2025, the previous edition of the Venetian gala raised more than $3.4 million, bringing the total raised by amfAR Venezia events since 2021 to more than $10 million.
Last year’s evening honoured Julian Schnabel, with Jude Law presenting the award, Colman Domingo hosting and performances by Ava Max and Paris Jackson. Those figures reveal the scale of the event far more clearly than any celebrity guest list.
September 6 becomes the centre of Venice’s social calendar
The date chosen for amfAR makes Sunday, September 6 one of the most crowded and internationally visible days of Venice 83.
Earlier that day, the Hotel Excelsior will host the Filming Italy Venice Award, with Orlando Bloom and Irina Shayk among the international personalities announced, while Luc Besson will hold a masterclass at the Match Point Arena. The Campari Lounge will add further film-related events to the Lido programme.
Then, as evening falls, part of the Festival crowd will cross the lagoon towards Giudecca. It is a movement that explains much about the contemporary character of the Venice Film Festival. The Palazzo del Cinema remains its cultural and institutional centre. Around it, however, Venice becomes for almost two weeks an international network of relationships in which cinema, art, fashion, hospitality and symbolic capital constantly intersect.
amfAR is perhaps the clearest expression of this system because it introduces an essential element: it converts the social value of attendance into tangible fundraising capacity.
Pamela Anderson, Marina Abramović, Taika Waititi and Bebe Rexha will inevitably attract the cameras and headlines. Yet the true measure of the evening at the Molino Stucky will emerge later, when the lights dim and the auction result is translated into resources for research.
In Venice, glamour is at its most compelling when it leaves something meaningful behind.
