08/09/2002 - Magdalene Sisters win Golden Lion, Konchalovsky's Dom Durakov the Jury Prize and Stefano Accorsi and Julianne Moore are best actors

Check out all the awards

Peter Mullan’s violet coloured kilt clearly brought him luck tonight. But luck alone is not enough to win the Golden Lion in Venice for The Magdalene Sisters. This is a truly great film and proud Scot that he is, Mullan wore the kilt and sporren as he gripped the Lion as and thanked the jury. He also reminded the audience that “my film is doing very well at the Italian box office, perhaps only nuns and priests are going to see it before lambasting it, but I don’t care. As long as they pay for the ticket” . Mullan’s second feature film won both critical and public acclaim in Venice, and sobriety of the awards ceremony did not stop him from comparing the cruelty of the Catholic church to the behaviour of the Taliban once again.
Jury president, Gong Li (who only speaks Chinese) struggled to pronounce Andrei Konchalovsky as she presented him with the Jury Grand Prix for Dom Durakov (The House of Fools). The Russian director, on the other hand, waxed lyrical as he compared the Venetian awards to unexpected treats. “I feel like a child again. It’s as if I found some delicious sweets that I wasn’t expecting: The Mostra first gave me some twenty years ago and here I am again for second helpings”.
Director of photography Ed Lachman’s words of thanks bordered on the prosaic as he addressed the audience after having been given the Lion for Best individual contribution for his outstanding work on Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. Wearing a black hat and glasses, Lachman thanked everybody for the love the Mostra had shown for his work. His speech was brief but very complimentary to his role models. It was more difficult to understand what Korea’s Lee Chang-dong said after his Oasis won a total of four awards including the Special best director, Fipresci, CinemAvvenire, Simis and, his leading lady, the Marcello Mastroianni best newcomer. “I feel like I am at my Oasis. I am drinking the water that you’ve given me and am recovering my strength before returning to the desert.”

Italy’s Stefano Accorsi and America’s Julianne Moore won the Volpi cups for, respectively best actor and actress. He for Michele Placido’s Un viaggio chiamato amore and she for Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. Accorsi, who came to stardom in Muccino’s The Last kiss dedicated the Volpi to “a man who never won an award in his life, to Dino Campana. It was a difficult part to play because the director maintained intact Campana’s enigmatic nature.” Accorsi defended the film from the critics’ lambasting, “It was bound to generate contrasting reactions. Audiences seem to like it, if the box office returns are anything to go by.”
Julianne Moore was not in Venice to receive her Volpi Cup so her DP, Ed Lachman stepped in. “Winning this Cup is a great honour for Julianne and she asks that I tell you that playing this character for an extraordinarily talented director like Todd Haynes was a unique gift.”
The “Marcello Mastroianni” went to newcomer, Moon So-Ri, the star of Oasis. “Mastroianni is well loved in Korea and this award helps me go on,” she said. Moon So-Ri said she trained for a long time before playing a paraplegic, “I had to empty my soul and become my character.”

China was victorious in “Controcorrente – Upstream” with Springtime in a Small Town by Tian Zhuangzhuang. The jury’s special prize went to Japan’s Tsukamoto Shinya for A snake of June. “This is an experimental film, and I was scared that the audience would not appreciate it.” The De Laurentiiis for best first film was shared between America’s Roger Dodd for Dylan Kidd and Spiro Scimone and Francesco Sframeli’s Due Amici – Two Friends. “Our characters,” said the two Italian actor-directors, “communicate with silence as well as words. We dedicate this award to all those people who listen to that silence.”