Thelma Schoonmaker, who has found acclaim as Martin Scorsese's trusted editor, picked up the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday (September 2).

The Algerian-born American has worked almost exclusively for Scorsese in a partnership that has spanned more than 45 years.

SOUNDBITE Film editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, saying (English):

"Imagine meeting Martin Scorsese when he was a 21-year-old student whose genius was about to spring into the world. Then imagine being able to work with him on 22 films over half a century. He's given me films to edit with him that are brilliant, endlessly challenging and always different from one another. Scorsese presents himself a new hurdle with each film and I get to jump over that hurdle with him. Nobody could ask for a better life in film than this."

Schoonmaker and Scorsese first worked together in 1967 on "Who's the Knocking at my Door?" but it was "Raging Bull" for which she won her first A