Dame Helen Mirren is the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at Italy's Taormina Film Festival.

The 80-year-old acting legend's illustrious career will be celebrated at the event - which runs from June 10 to June 14 - during an evening that pays tribute to Italian actress Anna Magnani.

Tiziana Rocca, artistic director at the Taormina Film Festival, told Deadline: "It is an immense honour to welcome Helen Mirren to the Taormina Film Festival. Her talent, her elegance, and her extraordinary career perfectly embody the spirit of our Festival.

"Presenting her with the Lifetime Achievement Award on an evening dedicated to Anna Magnani creates an ideal bridge between two icons of cinema, united by a unique interpretive power and a rare ability to move audiences.

"Helen Mirren's presence further enriches this edition, making it even more prestigious and international."

Mirren joins a prestigious club of past Taormina Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award winners, including Basic Instinct's Michael Douglas, 81, Casino alum Sharon Stone, 68, and 62-year-old Twister cast member Helen Hunt.

Mirren's career has seen her become the only performer to achieve the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting - a term for winning an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony in the US and BAFTA Film/TV and Olivier Awards in the UK - as well as be made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth in 2003 for services to drama.

And The Thursday Murder Club star's success came after having overcome an "endless litany" of mistakes.

In March 2024, Mirren told My Weekly magazine: "I turned down projects I should have said yes to, projects I should have said no to, had relationships with people that I shouldn't have had relationships with, got drunk at times that I shouldn't have got drunk at.

"There's been an endless litany of mistakes and missteps, but somehow, I've stumbled into being in the right place at the right time."

The Gosford Park performer - who caught the acting bug after she watched Hamlet as a child - was the youngest actress to be invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company aged 21.

And it took a while before she eventually broke into Hollywood, and got her breakout role as Victoria in the 1980 crime-thriller, The Long Good Friday.

Mirren told Britain's Closer magazine: "I wanted fame when I was 22. I had a certain kind of success in Britain. But the kind of international success didn't come until after 40."