See George Clooney's memorable moments at Venice Film Festival as actor prepares to return

No Hollywood star seems as intrinsically tied to Venice as George Clooney.

Twenty-six years ago he attended his first Venice Film Festival with the instant classic “Out of Sight”; 19 years ago, it’s where he debuted his sophomore film, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which earned him his first best director nomination; and 10 years ago, it’s where he exchanged vows with then Amal Alamuddin, at the Aman Venice, a five-star hotel perched alongside the Grand Canal.

Venice is a city that he, like many, thinks is one of the most beautiful in the world. Unlike most people, he also owns 15-bedroom villa a few hours away on Lake Como that famously co-starred in “Ocean’s Twelve.”

Though he’s never all that far away from Venice, or the city’s namesake film festival, it might come as a surprise that Clooney hasn’t had a film debut there in seven years. But that clock resets next week as he returns with “Wolfs,” the Jon Watts-directed heist thriller that reunites him with Brad Pitt.

It won’t be the first time Clooney and Pitt have graced the festival’s red carpet together, either. In anticipation of his big return, here are some of Clooney’s most memorable Venice moments.

As legend has it, Clooney's longterm love affair with Venice may have begun with the festival's premiere of Steven Soderbergh's Elmore Leonard adaptation “Out of Sight.” Then 37 and doing press alongside Jennifer Lopez, the actor would also make another big jump soon: Leaving “ER” that February.

This Coen brothers joint, co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, premiered out of competition at the 60th Venice Film Festival, alongside titles like “Matchstick Men,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “The Dreamers.” Clooney's nearby Italian residence was already as famous as him, and a stakeout spot for amateur and professional paparazzi.

In a profile that fall, while shooting “Ocean's Twelve,” Vanity Fair writer Ned Zeman observed: “That an affable, self-effacing Kentucky-born Hollywood actor is fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy says a little about Italy and a lot about Clooney, who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.”

Clooney's acclaimed black-and-white dramatization of journalist Edward R. Murrow's clash with Joseph McCarthy began its successful run in competition at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. Though it lost the Golden Lion to Ang Lee's “Brokeback Mountain,” it did go on to pick up six Oscar nominations including for Clooney's directing. Next year, he'll also be making his Broadway debut in an adaptation.

During the trip, he also inspired a cocktail still served at the ritzy Belmond Hotel Cipriani on Giudecca. One night he retreated to the hotel's Gabbiano Bar where his friend, the legendary bar manager Walter Bolzonella, mixed him a drink of lemon, sugar, vodka, cranberry juice, ginger and Angostura bitters and named it Buona Notte in honor of the film. The two would later name a Prosecco, passionfruit and elderflower cocktail La Nina after Clooney's mother, which was served at his wedding.

Tony Gilroy's “Michael Clayton," which nabbed Clooney an Oscar nomination for his turn as the titular law firm fixer, played in competition at Venice. The top prize went again to an Ang Lee film: “Lust, Caution," which also beat out the likes of “I'm Not There,” “Atonement” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

This Coen brothers comedy featuring Clooney and Pitt opted to debut out of competition in the opening night slot. He said it completed his “trilogy of idiots" that he'd played for the Coens, including “Intolerable Cruelty” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “Looking at the parts we are playing, I’m very concerned about what you think of us,” Clooney said at the press conference. Pitt, who'd won the festival's acting prize the year prior, added: “Like George … I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted."

Another opening night, out of competition slot debut for this Clooney-directed campaign thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As usual, Clooney was peppered with political questions in which he observed that, “it's a very difficult time to govern.”

Alfonso Cuarón's “Gravity” opened the 70th edition of the Venice Film Festival before going on to win seven Oscars. Clooney, of course, attended the premiere alongside Sandra Bullock and he was self-deprecating about his role: “There were only two parts and Sandy had the other one, so I felt like this was the only one I could get away with.”

The canals were packed with paparazzi for the nuptials of one of Hollywood's favorite bachelors. On Sept. 27, Clooney, then 53, and Alamuddin, then 36, exchanged vows in front of 100 of their closest friends and family, including Bono and Matt Damon, at the luxury hotel Aman Grand Canal, originally a grand palazzo built in 1550. She wore a custom Oscar de la Renta dress, of French lace, pearls and diamanté accents. He wore a black wool/cashmere Giorgio Armani tuxedo.

Clooney returned to the festival with another of his directing projects, “Suburbicon,” a dark comedic satire about a seemingly idyllic 1950s community with Damon and Julianne Moore. This festival was especially notable for it being the Clooneys' first public appearance since the birth of their twins, Alexander and Ella, a few months prior.

This time George was the plus one to Amal, who was receiving an award from the Diane von Furstenberg and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation for her work as a human rights lawyer. The power couple gave last year's festival some much-needed star power amid the actors strike with an appearance at the adjacent DVF Awards. “I am here in Venice with my husband; he is a rising star,” she said that night. “I just wanted to say, you, my love, like this city, take my breath away."

FILE - George Clooney, left, and Amal Clooney appear at the premiere of the film "Suburbicon" during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Sept. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - George Clooney arrives in Venice, Italy on a taxi boat for the 65th Venice Film Festival, Tuesday Aug. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - US actor George Clooney, left, and Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones appear at the screening of their film "Intolerable Cruelty" out of competition at the 60th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

FILE - US actor-director George Clooney, right, US actress Patricia Clarkson, center, and US actor David Strathairn arrive for a press conference to present their movie "Good night, and Good Luck" at the 62nd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, northern Italy on Sept. 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - George Clooney arrives at the Lido for the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 8, 1998, to promote the Steven Soderbergh film "Out Of Sight." (AP Photo/Francesco Proietti, File)

FILE - Actor David Strathairn, from left, actor-director George Clooney, actress Patricia Clarkson, and producer Grant Heslov appear at the screening of their film "Good night, and Good Luck" at the 62nd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, northern Italy on Sept. 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - Actors George Clooney, left, and Tilda Swinton joke during the photocall for their film "Michael Cayton" in competition at the 64th Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy on Aug. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - Actors Brad Pitt, left, and George Clooney appear at the screening of the movie "Burn After Reading," opening the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Aug. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - Actors George Clooney, left, and Brad Pitt appear at the photo call for their movie "Burn After Reading" at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Aug. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - Director Alfonso Cuaron, left, appears with actors Sandra Bullock, center, and George Clooney at the 70th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Aug. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - George Clooney, left, and Amal Alamuddin arrive in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 26, 2014, for their upcoming wedding. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

FILE - Actor George Clooney, center, poses with actors, Julianne Moore, right, and Matt Damon during the photo call for the film "Suburbicon" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Sept. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - US actor George Clooney arrives on the red carpet for the premiere of his movie "The Ides of March," opening the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Aug. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short, File)

FILE - George Clooney poses on the red carpet at the premiere of his film "The Ides of March," opening the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Aug. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Andrew Medechini, File)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)