McQueen beat British artist Isaac Julien and founder of the
hip hop group the Beastie Boys for the awards.

VENICE , ITALY (SEPTEMBER 1, 2008) REUTERS -
 British artist Steve Mcqueen on Monday (September 1) won the Gucci
Group awards for his film 'The Hunger', about the last six weeks of the IRA
hunger striker Bobby Sands. 
   The Gucci award ceremony  takes place during the Venice film festival,
and is given to an internationally-acclaimed artist who has made a
"remarkable contribution"  to a film in any capacity within the past
18 months. 
    Mcqueen, a British artist, won the acclaimed Turner Prize in 1999  for
his exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. 'Hunger'
premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won the 'Caméra d'Or' 
Award.Other nominees for the Gucci award were Isaac Julien, a London-based
photographer and video and film artist who was nominated for his direction of
'Derek', a Tilda Swinton written and narrated film, and a film by the Beastie
Boys' founding member  Adam Yauch. 
 McQueen received the Gucci award from Robert Polet, President and CEO of
Gucci Group. Among the award selection committee were  Marco Müller, Director
of the Venice Film Festival,  artist Jeff Koons and French actress Isabelle
Huppert.
    "It's great I mean it's wonderful to be in Venice of all places, 
of course it's wonderful and also great that I am nominated for an award. I
can only say it's brilliant," Mcqueen said upon arriving at the
ceremony.
     The 2008 Venice film festival has been described as one of the weakest
in recent years, and, as it reaches the halfway stage on Monday, needs more
hits to light up the main competition. 
    The annual event on the picturesque Lido waterfront attracts the
world's biggest movie stars and most accomplished film makers, and has earned
a reputation for kicking off the awards season that culminates in the Oscars.

    This year the stars have been thin on the ground and there has been
little buzz about lead performances. More importantly, critics say, the movies
on show have been generally poor. 
    But McQueen said the absence of Hollywood stars does not impact on the
festival's importance.
   "It's wonderful I mean thats what cinema is, cinema is a beacon to
what's happening around the world. The wonderful thing about cinema it's not
just happening in hollywoods-  it's happening all over the world, and people
can actually see and meet other people in the medium. It's wonderful,"
the artist said on Monday.
    Of the 21 films in the main competition that vie for the coveted Golden
Lion at a prize ceremony on Saturday, two Japanese entries are in the running
for the top award that has gone to an Asian director for the last three years.

    Animation master Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of the "The Little
Mermaid" is the favourite so far, showing the 67-year-old has lost none
of his energy and imagination. 
    Also popular was cult director Takeshi Kitano's "Achilles and the
Tortoise", while Italian entry "BirdWatchers" -- about a
confrontation between natives and wealthy white farmers in Brazil -- was
warmly applauded at a press screening on Monday. 
    It is one of four movies from Italy in the main competition. 
    Festival director Marco Mueller has been under scrutiny this year for
what some journalists call a Hollywood-light lineup. 
    He did ensure A-listers George Clooney and Brad Pitt were on the red
carpet for the opening film, the out-of-competition "Burn After
Reading" by the Coen brothers, but since then the star power has dimmed.