Sylvester Stallone, seen here in 2007, is set to receive the Venice International Film Festival's Glory To The Filmmaker Award on La Mostra's final day. (Remy de la Mauviniere/Associated Press)

Sylvester Stallone, whose film work has explored "the light and the darkness of the American Dream," will be honoured with a special award next month at the Venice International Film Festival.

Organizers announced Wednesday that the Rocky and Rambo star will receive the recently introduced Glory To The Filmmaker Award, which honours "an artist who has left his mark in contemporary cinema."

Past recipients have included Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, French director Agnès Varda and Iran's Abbas Kiarostami.

"Stallone has shown an original eye and an auteur's determination. His is a cinema capable of tenderness even when dripping with blood," organizers said in a statement.

In his famed Rocky and Rambo franchises, the statement said, "Stallone travelled through the light and the darkness of the American Dream — each of those films remarkably anchored in its own present time."

Stallone will receive the award at a ceremony on the final day of the festival, known as La Mostra. Excerpts from his newest film, The Expendables, will also be screened.

"Being honoured at the Venice Film Festival is something I have always hoped would become a reality and now that it's actually happened it's been well worth the wait," said the actor, screenwriter, director and producer.

The 66th edition of the Venice film fest runs Sept. 2-12, officially kicking off with the multi-generational drama Baaria, directed by Italian Oscar-winner and Cinema Pardiso director Giuseppe Tornatore.