George Clooney called out ‘authoritarians who peddle fear’ after he picked up his Lifetime Achievement Award at Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.The Hollywood star, 65, received a lengthy standing ovation after he delivered a powerful speech championing human connection and cinema as a unifier.’Nobody laughs in a different language. Nobody cries in a different language. Parents worry the same, kids dream the same,’ he highlighted. ‘Love looks remarkably similar… which makes it hard to believe that we’re as different as we’re constantly being told.’Humble Clooney used his platform to stress the importance of humanity coming together instead of dwelling on differences. He continued: ‘We’re living through a moment in time where people in charge, the people with the most money, are telling us to fear one another. But we know better than that, don’t we? Because history does teach us a lesson. It teaches us something. ‘The first people that authoritarians tried to shut down are not politicians. They’re journalists who ask questions. They’re the artists who refuse simple answers; the filmmakers, writers, actors, and musicians who insist that someone you never met is deserving of your empathy. George Clooney called out ‘authoritarians who peddle fear’ after he picked up his Lifetime Achievement Award at Venice Film Festival on Wednesday The Hollywood star, 65, received a lengthy standing ovation after he delivered a powerful speech championing human connection and cinema as a unifier’Stories are always dangerous to people who peddle in fear, the people who are afraid of books and music and stories are never the heroes in history. So yes, movies don’t stop wars, they don’t lower inflation, they don’t fix elections, but they do something remarkable. ‘They remind us that a stranger is never a stranger, and that he might just be the hero in somebody else’s story.’Clooney was presented the award by his longtime friend Laura Dern. The pair starred together in his first ever movie, Grizzly II: Revenge.Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is the jury president, echoed Clooney’s words on the power of cinema.’When I go to the movies, I’m not interested in perfection, seductive as it may be. My favorite films are films where a filmmaker invites me into their mind and the minds of their collaborators and lets me take a look around,’ she said.’I’m interested in having an interaction with something human, even if that human has a very different experience or point of view than I do. ‘I’m also not someone who believes that we can only make art about certain things and by certain people. I want to know. I want to be rocked, shaken up. I want my mind to be changed,’ she continued.’I think that when we tell stories about even the most perverse, corrupt characters, it allows us to find empathy for the corruption and perversity all around us, and even-and this, of course, is scariest of all-inside of us, I don’t know about you, but there, but for the grace of God, go I.’Just hours before his red carpet arrival, Clooney launched a scathing attack on the US administration, branding those in charge ‘the least qualified people’ and slamming what he said was a complete absence of ‘decency’.’We’ve had some other difficult times but this is one of them,’ he said. ‘There is a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people. I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now but we will get through it.’We will have an election in November that should be a check and balance and then in 2028, with any luck, we will have some restoration.’The Oscar-winning star went on to denounce President Donald Trump’s administration as ‘cruel’, arguing that basic standards of decency had disappeared from public life. ‘Nobody laughs in a different language. Nobody cries in a different language. Parents worry the same, kids dream the same’, he highlighted Clooney was presented the award by his longtime friend Laura Dern (right). The pair starred together in his first ever movie, Grizzly II: Revenge Maggie Gyllenhaal (pictured), who is the jury president, echoed Clooney’s words on the power of cinema In the nearly 30 years since he attended his first Venice Film Festival with the film Out Of Sight, George has become something of a fixture at the event It’s a place where he’s enjoyed many significant moments, from his wedding to Amal to the debut of Good Night, And Good Luck, which he co-wrote and starred in, and for which he was nominated for his first best director Oscar Amal stole the show in a glamorous Tom Ford gown at the opening night of Venice Film Festival’The idea that cruelty is the base, that being cruel and unkind is part of the fun of all this,’ Clooney told press, in the latest of a string of attacks the actor has made against the running of the US.’You see what the secretary of defense just tweeted out a picture about women in the military in Canada and you’re going, “What is wrong with you?”‘”Where is the sense of decency in all this?” I’m ashamed of all of that but we will get through it and we will come out better on the other side.’Clooney drew on a tweet by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appearing to mock the physical appearance of an overweight female Canadian soldier presenting a medal at a youth camp.On Monday night, Hegseth posted the image from a cadet training center in British Columbia with the caption: ‘This is real’.Calling himself an optimist, Clooney said he remembered living through dark times in the country’s history – which he likened to today.’I’m old enough to have been through 1968 in the States when every city in the United States was set on fire and we lost Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in the same year,’ he said.’There was tons of violence. The Capitol was surrounded with tanks. We’ve had some other difficult times, but this is one of them.’In the nearly 30 years since he attended his first Venice Film Festival with the film Out Of Sight, George has become something of a fixture at the event.It’s a place where he’s enjoyed many significant moments, from his wedding to Amal to the debut of Good Night, And Good Luck, which he co-wrote and starred in, and for which he was nominated for his first best director Oscar.Last year, he attended the festival to promote his film Jay Kelly, in which he plays a movie star who travels to Italy for a lifetime achievement award – so this year marks a wonderful full-circle moment.