MUMBAI: Preity Zinta was honoured at the 68th Venice Film Festival yesterday for bringing cultural harmony through her work. She was awarded the World Diamond Group Platinum Award for Peoples‘ Friendship on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Kineo Diamanti al Cinema event at the Festival.

She was felicitated with a white olive tree, with its tree trunk sculpted off a block of Carrara hand-carved marble, and its branches and leaves fashioned out of 3,333 grams of platinum and 3,003 diamonds - 2,503 marquise cut and 500 new 82 facets round cut - adding to a total of 366 carats.

With this, Preity becomes the only Indian actor to have been presented this award.

On the other hand, veteran Al Pacino has also been honoured at the Venice Film Festival. He was awarded the Jaeger Lecoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award. Pacino is in Venice to promote his new directorial project Wilde Salome, a part-documentary about writer-poet Oscar Wilde and part-movie adaptation of his play Salome.

Other guests who were present at the event included Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet and singer Madonna.