The Venice Film Festival closing ceremony is underway, and it will soon be revealed which movie is taking home the prestigious Golden Lion for best film.
Hostess Emanuela Faneli began the ceremony briskly by reminding the audience of the honorary awardees this edition: Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant and Julian Schnabel, before the first winner of in the Venice Immersive section was announced: “The Long Goodbye” by Kate Voet and Victor Maes, who said they were “overwhelmed with joy at this honor.”
“So many people have a connection to the theme of dementia,” said Maes before dedicating the award to his grandfather as the music played him off.
Négar Motevalymeidanshah, accepting her award for Immersive title “Less than 5gr of Saffron,” said: “I long for a time when no children of any land — not my land, Iran or anywhere — are forced into exile, may that day come soon.” And the Grand Prix in the Immersive section goes to “The Clouds are 2,000m Up” by Singing Chen, who described it as “a story about grief, memory and love and the unique culture of Taiwan. We wanted to bring the audience fully inside this story of loss and connection.” According to Chen, the work represents “two years of passion from my crew,” whom she thanked as the music threatened to drown her out.
Keeping it nice and brief, the winners of the Best Documentary on Film award, “Mata Hari,” Joe Bechenkovsky and James A Smith say with a grin “Thank you to the jury for your fantastic taste.” And we’re swiftly onto the Orizzonti awards where Orizzonti jury prez Julia Ducornau announces the best short film in the section: “Without Kelly.” Director Lovisa Sirén says her film is about “Love and longing for a child,” and is “a very personal story.”
Keeping it nice and brief, the winners of the best documentary on film award, “Mata Hari,” Joe Bechenkovsky and James A Smith, said with a grin: “Thank you to the jury for your fantastic taste.” And we’re swiftly onto the Orizzonti awards, where Orizzonti jury prez Julia Ducornau announced the best short film in the section: “Without Kelly.” Director Lovisa Sirén said her film is about “love and longing for a child” and is “a very personal story.”
Ana Cristina Barragán, accepting the Orizzonti best screenplay award for “The Ivy,” made the night’s first reference to the war in Gaza by ending her Spanish-language acceptance speech with “Palestina libre.”
Both Orizzonti acting awards went to Italian actors, which is popular with the home crowd. Best actress was awarded to Benedetta Porcaroli in “The Kidnapping of Arabella” by Carolina Cavalli, and best actor was taken by a charmingly emotional Giacomo Covi for Laura Samani’s “A Year of School.”
“Lost Lands” by Akio Fujimoto, an emotive tale of Rohingya refugees trying to make it from their camp in Bangladesh home to Malaysia, took the Orizzonti special jury prize. The film’s Rohingya producer issued an appeal: “To plead with all of you to share your voice… please work with us in our journey to go home.”
Orizzonti best director Anuparna Roy winner (“Songs of Forgotten Trees”) concluded her emotional speech with a brave call for solidarity against the “disastrous happenings in Palestine… Every child deserves peace, freedom and liberation and Palestine is no exception.”
“I don’t want any clap for this,” she said over the applause. “I might upset my country [by saying this], but it doesn’t matter to me anymore.”
The conflict in Palestine was once again mentioned as a parting comment by the filmmakers behind “On the Road” by David Pablos, which took the top prize in Orizzonti and concluded the first section of the ceremony. Next up, the prize for best first feature (across all sections) before the night’s main event.
After a short break, the main part of the ceremony started with ith a witty intro from Faneli begging recipients to keep their speeches short, and a warm, respectful standing ovation for Giorgio Armani, who died on Thursday and whose Armani Beauty brand has long been a sponsor of the festival.
The Armani Beauty Audience Award went to “Calle Malaga” directed by Maryam Touzani. Touzani’s speech dedicated her award to her mother, her partner and producer Nabil Ayouch, and her son. “The joy I feel is profound.” she said, “but so is the pain I feel because like many of us I cannot forget the horror inflicted every minute, every second on the people of Gaza, the people of Palestine… We wipe our tears and we refuse to lose our humanity. Politics might fail but art is and will always be a home for justice, freedom and humanity.”
The Luigi De Laurentiis Award for debut film, for which the jury was chaired by “Aftersun” helmer Charlotte Wells, went to “Short Summer” from the Giornate selection. Accepting the award, director Nastia Korkia said: “This is the 1,291st day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I have never seen the war up close but for 1,291 days I feel its influence. Like radiation… it destroys society from within.” She continued, “I very much hope we will keep our eyes wide open and find the strength to stop the war.”
The international jury then took its place on stage and Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao presented Luna Wedler of Ildikó Enyedi’s “Silent Friend” with the Marcello Mastroianni Award for an emerging performer. She quite charmingly blanks on most of the names she wants to thank, except of course that of her director, whom she calls an inspiration as a woman and a filmmaker.
A deserved best actress win went to Xin Zhilei of Cai Shangjun’s last-day premiere “The Sun Rises on Us All” and was followed by a Mandarin-language acceptance speech from the actress, who reintroduced herself at the beginning of her remarks. “I am very happy and very proud,” she said before unstoppably ignoring the play-off music twice to continue her thank yous.
Next up was a widely fancied best actor win for local hero Toni Servillo for his lead performance in Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia.” Adept veteran that he is, he shouted out the president of the jury, Alexander Payne as a director whom he has admired for years, before also mentioning Palestine in his more general, warmly received remarks about human dignity.
Accepting the best screenplay award for “At Work,” French director Valerie Donzelli gave a delighted, high-energy speech of thanks which especially called attention to the performance of her lead actor Bastien Bouillon and ended with her calling her award “a promise” for films yet to be made.
Previous Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi must content himself this year with a special jury prize (the third place prize) for his Vesuvius documentary “Below the Clouds,” presented to him by Stephane Brizé. Payne then announced the best director award, which went to Benny Safdie for his Mark Kerr biopic “The Smashing Machine.”
“Please don’t play the music!” Safdie begged immediately, before describing the win as “a dream come true. To be here, amongst the giants of the past and the giants of this year, it blows my mind.” He described his film as “an exercise in radical empathy, and empathy is more important than ever.”
Last year, Pedro Almodóvar took home the Golden Lion for “The Room Next Door,” starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Brady Corbet won the Silver Lion for best director for his work on “The Brutalist,” which went on to win three Oscars, and Nicole Kidman scored the Volpi Cup for best actress.
Films competing for this year’s Golden Lion include Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” Cai Shangjun’s “The Sun Rises on Us All,” Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice,” Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” among others.
The competition jury is headed up by “The Holdovers” director Alexander Payne and comprises Oscar-nominated Brazilian actress and writer Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), prominent Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”), Palme d’Or-winning Romanian director-writer-producer Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”), French director Stéphane Brizé (“Out of Season”), Italian director Maura Delpero (“Vermiglio”) and Chinese actor and producer Zhao Tao (“Caught by the Tides”).
See all the award winners below, updating live.
COMPETITION
Golden Lion for Best Film:
Grand Jury Prize: “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kaouther Ben Hania
Silver Lion for Best Director: Benny Safdie, “The Smashing Machine”
Special Jury Prize: “Below the Clouds,” Gianfranco Rosi
Best Screenplay: Valérie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand, “À pied d’œuvre” (“At Work”)
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Xin Zhilei, “The Sun Rises on Us All”
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Toni Servillo, “La Grazia”
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Luna Welder, “Silent Friend”
Armani Beauty Audience Award: “Calle Malaga,” Maryam Touzani
Luigi De Laurentis Award for Debut Film: “Short Summer,” Nastia Korkia
HORIZONS
Best Film: “En el camino” (“On the Road),” David Pablos
Best Director: Anuparna Roy, “Songs of Forgotten Trees”
Special Jury Prize: “Harà Watan” (“Lost Land”), Akio Fujimoto
Best Actress: Benedetta Porcaroli, “Il Rapimento di Arabella” (“The Kidnapping of Arabella”
Best Actor: Giacomo Covi, “Un Anno di Scuola” (“A Year of School”)
Best Screenplay: “Hiedra” (“The Ivy”), Ana Cristina Barragán
Best Short Film: “Without Kelly,” Lovisa Sirén
VENICE CLASSICS
Best Documentary on Cinema: “Mata Hari,” Joe Beshenkovsky and James A. Smith
Best Restored Film: “Bashu, the Little Stranger,” Bahram Beizai
VENICE IMMERSIVE
Grand Prize: “The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up,” Singing Chen
Special Jury Prize: “Less Than 5gr of Saffron,” Négar Motevalymeidanshah
Achievement Prize: “A Long Goodbye,” Kate Voet and Victor Maes
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