VENICE, ITALY.- Gucci Group announced that Steve McQueen has been awarded the third annual Gucci Group Award. McQueen received the award from Robert Polet, President and CEO of Gucci Group, at a ceremony held in Venice’s Palazzo Grassi.

Steve McQueen is a British artist. He studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Goldsmiths College, and the Tisch School at NYU. McQueen, who often appears in his own works, is known for his multi-layered, fascinating films and his utilization of extreme and unexpected camera angles. He won the Turner Prize in 1999 for his exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, which revealed his original and uncompromising approach to film installation as well as the emotional intensity of his works.

McQueen has been nominated for the 2008 Gucci Group Award for the direction of “Hunger”, a striking, strong and emotional film which is about the last six weeks of the life of Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands.

“Hunger” premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won the prestigious Caméra d'Or Award.

"I am very pleased and honored to receive this award from the Gucci Group. And the fact that the award recognizes the efforts of an artist who has broken into a different genre gives me great pleasure." said Steve McQueen receiving the award.

“Steve McQueen who continuously transcends the boundaries of conventional art forms profoundly embodies the spirit of the Gucci Group Award which recognizes and honours visionaries who bring art to life on screen", commented Robert Polet, President and CEO of Gucci Group.

“The 2008 Gucci Group nominees dazzled us with their particular methodologies of expressing themselves through film,” said Selection Committee member Marco Müller, the Director of the 65th Venice Film Festival. “Steve McQueen’s work on Hunger was brave, open eyed and painfully powerful demonstrating the complete transformation of this artist into filmmaker.”

Each year, the Gucci Group Award is bestowed to an internationally-acclaimed artist who has made a remarkable contribution to a film in any capacity within the past 18 months, as a director, actor, screenwriter, set designer, or costume designer. The ceremony was attended by some 300 guests from the worlds of art, cinema, and international society. Members of the 2008 Gucci Group Award Selection Committee were Marco Müller, Director of the Venice Film Festival, Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-chief of Vogue Italy, the artist Jeff Koons, the actress Isabelle Huppert and Stefano Pilati, Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent. Each member of the Selection Committee nominated one artist, and together the Committee determined the winner of the award.