Ellen Burstyn, now 93, reflected on the longevity of her career at a Venice Film Festival press conference for her new film "Place to Be", admitting she once assumed her acting work would dry up by the age of 40. The Oscar, Tony and Emmy winner called her continued career "a miracle" and expressed deep gratitude, speaking alongside co-star Taika Waititi and Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó, who developed her role specifically for her after rewatching much of her filmography.

"Place to Be" casts Burstyn and Waititi as an elderly woman and a divorced man who bond while she travels from New York to Chicago to return a lost racing pigeon, with Pamela Anderson and Murray Bartlett playing her children. Burstyn, who used a walker after a recent fall, is having a busy festival: alongside this film and a Marilyn Monroe-inspired short by Maggie Gyllenhaal, she also received Venice's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, an honour she said moved her to tears and meant more than her Oscar, Tony or Emmy wins.