While last year’s strike left the Lido somewhat subdued with few talented festival performers, this year’s Venice 2024 International Film Festival was hot and steamy. And I’m not just talking about the excessive heat to which movie stars and fans were subjected. Films like Halina Rain’s erotic thriller Babygirl and Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of a William S. Burroughs short story Queer piqued audience interest with career-best performances from Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and some very explicit sexual exchanges. But it was Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door that took home the coveted Golden Lion, marking the first time in the director’s career that he has won the top prize at a major film festival.
Brady Corbet returned to the Palazzo del Cinema with the four-hour post-World War II epic The Brutalist, which garnered rave reviews and earned its director a Silver Lion, while Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s DC sequel Joker: Two Nightmares received mixed reviews from critics.
This year’s top prize was presented by jury president Isabelle Huppert, along with Silver Lion-winning director James Gray. Gray served on Huppert’s jury at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and reportedly called Huppert a “fascist bastard” for overruling Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet for the Palme d’Or, awarding it instead to Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon. Huppert’s Competition Jury also includes British filmmaker Andrew Haigh, last year’s Special Jury Prize winner Agnieszka Holland, Brazilian filmmaker and programmer Clever Mendonça Filho, Oscar nominee and César Award winner Abderrahmane Sissako, Cinema Paradiso writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore, German director Julia von Heinz and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memories of a Geisha.
Meanwhile, Huppert was present on almost every red carpet, supporting all the films shown in the competition. Another standout presence throughout the festival was Bones and All actress Taylor Russell, who is on the jury that will decide the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for best newcomer. The two were present at the premieres of Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and Pablo Larraín’s Maria. Both films were very well received at the Sala Grande, especially for the performances of Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and Angelina Jolie, but did not receive a strong response from critics. Walter Salles’ biographical drama I’m Still Here also offers a captivating performance from Ferranda Torres and will probably be Brazil’s Oscar contender.
Today’s winners also include winners from other sections of the festival, including Orizzonti, Biennale College and the VR program.
You can also watch the awards ceremony on the Biennale’s YouTube livestream below.
2023 Venice Film Festival Winners
Golden Lion: “The Room Next Door” (Pedro Almodóvar)
Silver Lion: “Vermilio” (Maura Delpero)
Silver Lion for Best Director: Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
Special Jury Prize: “April” (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
Best Original Screenplay: Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, “I’m Still Here”
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”
Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, “The Quiet Son”
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Paul Kircher, And Their Kids
Orizzonti Best Film Award: “A New Year That Never Comes” (Bodogan Muresanu)
Orizzonti Best Director: Sara Friedland, “The Familiar Touch”
Orizzonti Special Jury Prize: “The Day Hemme Died” (Murat Filatoglu)
Orizzonti Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant, “Familiar Touch”
Orizzonti Best Actor Award: Francesco Gheghi for “Famiglia”
Orizzonti Screenplay Award: “Happy Holidays” (Scandal Copti)
Orizzonti Best Short Film Award: “Who Loves the Sun” (Althea Shakiba)
Lion of the Future Award for Debut: “Familiar Touch” by Sarah Friedland
Orizzonti Special Audience Award: “Shahed (Witness)” by Nader Saeiwal
Venice Classics – Best Documentary: “Chain Reactions” (Alexandre O. Philippe)
Venice Classics – Best Restoration: “Ecce Bombo” (Nanni Moretti)
Venice Immersive Grand Prix: “Make Ito” (Boris Rabe)
Venice Immersive Achievement Award: “Impulse, Playing with Reality” (Barry Jean Murphy, May Abdalla)
Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize: “Otho’s Planet” (Gwenael François)