DVF Awards to Honor Christy Turlington Burns, Kim Kardashian

WOMEN IN VENICE: The DVF Awards have become a Venice fixture, coinciding once again with the city’s Film Festival.

On Thursday, Diane von Furstenberg will celebrate the work of extraordinary women with the 16th edition of the awards. This year, the honorees will include Sudanese activist and Emergency Response Room leader Hanin Ahmed; Christy Turlington Burns, founder and president of Every Mother Counts; general coordinator of COICA and defender of Indigenous and environmental rights Fany Kuiru Castro; entrepreneur and philanthropist Kim Kardashian, and Giulia Minoli, president of Italian foundation Una Nessuna Centomila, dedicated to combatting violence against women.

Presenters will include author and journalist Tina Brown; Grace Burns, Turlington’s daughter; Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino; architect and activist Giulia Foscari, and American singer and songwriter Chris Young.

“In these chaotic times, it is more important than ever that this year’s honorees are incredible women who have had the courage to fight, the strength to survive and the leadership to inspire,” von Furstenberg said. “I am thrilled to draw attention to their important work and to celebrate in Venice, a city that I love and is herself an extraordinary woman.”

The event, which will take place at the Goldoni Theater and will be supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, will include a performance by Iranian dancer-choreographer Sahar Dehghan.

The DVF Awards were created in 2010 by the designer and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognize and support extraordinary women who are dedicated to transforming and inspiring the lives of other women, granting each honoree $100,000 for their nonprofit organization in order to further their work.

Over the years the DVF Awards have amplified the voices of women from more than 30 countries with grants to further their work in the areas of climate change, immigration, fighting human trafficking, promoting gender equality and preventing violence against women.

Previous awards were bestowed to the likes of Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, among others.

The events have drawn such powerful women as Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Oprah Winfrey.

The Venice Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday and runs until Sept. 6.