Hollywood actor and director George Clooney used the occasion of receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival to deliver a pointed critique of the current United States government, calling it a "kakistocracy" — a term referring to rule by the least qualified — while expressing cautious hope for a return to normalcy by 2028.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday ahead of the ceremony, where he was accompanied by his wife Amal Clooney, the 65-year-old said he was ashamed of the American government and that its cruelty amounted to more than just poor governance. "I believe we are living through an unfortunate time, and I think that's even an understatement," he said. Drawing on historical perspective, Clooney noted that he was old enough to remember 1968, when major American cities were in flames, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated, and the Capitol was surrounded by tanks. "We have been through other difficult times," he said, "but this one certainly belongs among them." He added that the November midterm elections could provide some "counterweight" to the current political direction.

Clooney also ranged across broader concerns facing his industry and the media landscape. He expressed unease about the concentration of media power, noting that some of the world's wealthiest men now own outlets such as The Washington Post and the social media platform X. On the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., he acknowledged uncertainty about how such a consolidation would unfold. He also warned about the threat artificial intelligence poses to both Hollywood and journalism, quipping that he would "like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I'm dead."

Clooney's remarks came as the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival — held annually on the Lido island in northeastern Italy and one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film events — opened with a notably geopolitical flavour. The competition lineup includes documentaries on the conflict in Gaza, Elon Musk, and Russian journalists in exile covering the war in Ukraine. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal described film as "fundamentally, unavoidably political," while festival director Alberto Barbera said the selection of politically engaged films was essentially unavoidable given the state of the world. "We are in a space open to everybody for discussion, for confrontation," Barbera said.

The festival's opening night film, "Ink," directed by Danny Boyle and starring Guy Pearce as media mogul Rupert Murdoch, received a reported five-minute standing ovation. The film, an adaptation of James Graham's acclaimed stage play, dramatises Murdoch's 1969 acquisition of British tabloid The Sun and raises questions about the cost of sacrificing journalistic standards for profit — themes that resonated strongly with the festival's broader concerns about media integrity in the current era.