They called the 69-year-old filmmaker the "greatest and most influential Spanish director" since Luis Bunuel last century.

Almodovar "has offered us the most multifaceted, controversial, and provocative portraits of post-Franco Spain," festival director Alberto Barbera said in a press release. 

"The topics of transgression, desire, and identity are the terrain of choice for his films, which he imbues with corrosive humor and adorns with a visual splendor."

Almodovar has directed 21 feature films, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, High Heels and All About My Mother.

He said in a statement he was "excited and honored" by the prize.

Read also: Almodovar's ode to filmmaking hits the right notes at Cannes

"This Lion is going to become my pet, along with the two cats I live with."

The filmmaker, screenwriter and producer won an Oscar for best foreign film with All About My Mother in 2000.

He won the best screenplay award for Volver at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and the Venice festival's best screenplay award for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 1988.

This year he was back at Cannes, where he presented his 21st film, Pain and Glory with Antonio Banderas.

Banderas received the festival's best actor award for his role as a filmmaker in crisis.

The Venice International Film Festival runs from 27 August to 7 September.