Venice Film Festival - The Winners

by Nathaniel R

While Elisa makes her way home (thanks for the great coverage!) here are the winners of the 82nd annual edition of the reknowned film festival.

MAIN SLATE 

Alexander Payne (Jury Chair) alongside jury members Stéphane Brizé, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu, Mohammad Rasoulof, Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao chose the following winners from the competitive main slate:

Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, and Vicky Krieps star in FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER

GOLDEN LION: FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER by Jim Jarmusch (USA, Ireland, France)
Jim Jarmusch's new picture is about adult siblings reuniting and dealing with their emotionally distant parents (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Waits).

SILVER LION: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France)
Many critics thought this drama, Tunisia's Oscar submission, would take the Golden Lion but second place it was.

BEST DIRECTOR: Benny Safdie for the film THE SMASHING MACHINE (USA) -REVIEWED HERE

BEST ACTRESS: Xin Zhilei in the film RI GUA ZHONG TIAN (THE SUN RISES ON US ALL) by Cai Shangjun (China)

BEST ACTOR: Toni Servillo in the film LA GRAZIA by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy) - REVIEWED HERE

BEST SCREENPLAY to: Valérie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand for the film À PIED D’ŒUVRE (AT WORK) by Valérie Donzelli (France)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE:SOTTO LE NUVOLE (BELOW THE CLOUDS) by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD (Best Young Actor or Actress): Luna Wedler in the film SILENT FRIEND by Ildikó Enyedi (Germany, Hungary, France)

ORRIZONTI (HORIZONS)

Benedetta Porcaroli wins BEST ACTRESS for "The Kidnapping of Arabella"

This sidebar is not unlike Un Certain Regard in Cannes in that it focuses less on masters and more on younger newer or less revered (yet) filmmakers.The jury was chaired by Julia Ducournau (Titane) along with fellow jurors by Yuri Ancarani, Fernando Enrique Juan Lima, Shannon Murphy and RaMell Ross. They watched 19 films and 14 shorts, and it's interesting that both of their acting prizes went to Italians while the other prizes all went elsewhere: Latin America, Scandinavia, and Asia. 

BEST FILM: EN EL CAMINO (ON THE ROAD) by David Pablos (Mexico) -- see also QUEER LION below for more info on this film

BEST DIRECTOR: Anuparna Roy for the film SONGS OF FORGOTTEN TREES (India)

SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE: HARÀ WATAN (LOST LAND) by Akio Fujimoto (Japan, France, Malasya, Germany)

BEST ACTRESS: Benedetta Porcaroli in the film IL RAPIMENTO DI ARABELLA  by Carolina Cavalli (Italy)
The rather cryptic description is that she plays a woman who thinks she's 'the wrong version of herself' until she meets a 7 year old who changes her perspective. 

BEST ACTOR: Giacomo Covi in the film UN ANNO DI SCUOLA (A YEAR OF SCHOOL) by Laura Samani (Italy, France)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Ana Cristina Barragán for the film HIEDRA (THE IVY) (Ecuador)

BEST SHORT FILM: UTAN KELLY (WITHOUT KELLY) by Lovisa Sirén (Sweden)

DEBUT FILM

Aftersun's Charlotte Wells alongside Erige Sehiri, and Silvio Soldini were tasked with finding the best directorial feature debut (from multiple sections). 

LION OF THE FUTURE: SHORT SUMMER by Nastia Korkia (Germany, France, Serbia) which was in the Giornate Degli Autori section. The film, which is in Russian, is about an innocent young girl spending the summer with her grandparents (whose marriage is on the rocks) as the Chechen war unfolds. 

QUEER LION 

The number of films up for queer prizes at festivals each year varies wildly since you can only choose by how many LGBTQ films are in the various programs. This year the jury (Daniel N. Casagrande, Marco Busato, Jani Kuštrin, Adriano Virone) had 10 titles to choose from. I'm listing them for your (and my) bookmarking pleasure so you can seek them out if that's your sort of thing:

• After the Hunt by Luca Guadagnino (US) - REVIEWED HERE
• En el camino by David Pablos (Mexico)
• Estrany riu (Strange River) by Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain, Germany)
• Dark Rooms by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen, Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup (Denmark, Germany, Taipei)
• Constantinopoliad by Sister Sylvester, Nadah El Shazly (UK, Greece)
• Arkoudotrypa (Bearcave) by Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysianna B. Papadakis (Greece)
• La Gioia by Nicolangelo Gelormini (Italy)
• Anoche Conquisté Tebas (Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes) by Gabriel Azorín (Spain, Portugal)
• Gorgonà by Evi Kalogiropoulou (Greece, France) 
• 100 Nights of Hero by Julia Jackman (UK).

Victor Prieto and Osvaldo Sanchez in EN EL CAMINO. Photo credit: Animal de Luz

QUEER LION: EN EL CAMINO by David Pablos (Mexico)
The film they chose is a carnal drama about two men set in the hypermasculine world of truckdrivers and highways. The jury's reasoning for the prize:

For the courage of producer Inna Payán in endorsing a project set within a world dominated by a machista subculture marked by violence and homophobia. For the audacity of director David Pablos in his portrayal of a carnal, explicit, authentic, and unfiltered sexuality. For the moving depiction of a pure love that unites two men, two solitudes, and two vulnerabilities that discover one another, embrace one another, and ultimately redeem one another: Queer Lion Award 2025 to En el camino by David Pablos.

VENICE CLASSICS

Tommaso Santambrogio chaired this jury whose members are students of Cinema from Italian University cinema programs. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA: 
MATA HARI by Joe Beshenkovsky and James A. Smith (USA)
This new documentary tracks a relationships alongside a couple's unfinished passion project about the titular subject. 

BEST RESTORED FILM: 
BASHU, GHARIBEYE KOOCHAK (BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER) by Bahram Beyzaie (Iran, 1985)

 VENICE IMMERSIVE

Jury chair Eliza McNitt alongside Gwenael François and Boris Labbé had 30 projects to view for these prizes: 

GRAND PRIZE: THE CLOUDS ARE TWO THOUSAND METERS UP by Singing Chen (Taipei, Germany)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: LESS THAN 5GR OF SAFFRON by Négar Motevalymeidanshah (France)

ACHIEVEMENT PRIZE: A LONG GOODBYE by Kate Voet and Victor Maes (Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands)

...AND FINALLY

ARMANI BEAUTY AUDIENCE AWARD: 

<-- CALLE MÁLAGA by Maryam Touzani (Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium), This film is about an elderly woman who intends to keep her family home despite her daughter's decision to sell it. Calle Malaga is headlined by the  always wonderful Goya-showered icon Carmen Maura  (Women on the Verge..., Ay Carmela, Volver, The Women on the Sixth Floor and many many more ).

This is Morocco's Oscar submission and also happens to be Maryam Touzani's first film in the Spanish language. Touzani and her husband Nabil Ayouch (who cowrote the film) reign in terms of Morocco Oscar submissions with 8 submissions between them. Morocco has yet to be nominated for the Oscar but they've been building momentum with 3 films making the films to date. Those three finalists include one of Touzani's previous submissions, the gay drama The Blue Caftan in 2022. 

Can't wait to see this!