ROME (AFP) - Italy's veteran director Ermanno Olmi is to be awarded a Golden Lion for his career at the Venice film festival, which runs from August 27 to September 6, festival organisers said on Saturday.

The prize pays homage to an artist "who has left a profound mark on modern cinema" and has eschewed fashion to tell stories which shed light on the human condition, the organisers said in a statement.

Olmi, 76, expressed his "emotion and his gratitude" at the award.

"As I am now retired and no longer maker films, the award makes me very happy and I can fully enjoy this emotion," he told the ANSA news agency.

Olmi won a Golden Lion in Venice in 1988 for "The Legend of the Holy Drinker", based on the novel by Joseph Roth and starring the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer.

His best known film remains "The Tree of the Wooden Clogs" about peasant life in Lombardy at the start of the 20th century which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival in 1978.

Last year the Venice festival gave its career award to the US director Tim Burton.

LIKE IT?  LET OTHERS KNOW