07/09/2013 - The most prestigious award is given to a documentary. Italy had not won in fifteen years (the last time was Amelio with The Way We Laughed)

"Gianfranco Rosi’s film is surprising, we decided to give it The Golden Lion with great enthusiasm. I cannot remember whether we reached consensus on the first vote, but I do not remember anyone suggesting any other film apart from Sacro GRA [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile].” These were Bernardo Bertolucci’s words, jury president during this year’s Venice Film Festival, as he met with the international press.

It had been fifteen years since Italy had last won the most prestigious award (last time was Gianni Amelio for The Way We Laughed). For Bertolucci, the entire jury “felt the poetic strength of the documentary. Inside this Saturn’s ring which surrounds Rome, thanks to Rosi’s talent as a one man band, he managed to make us discover these people, bringing us close to them with great style. The way in which he manages to get close to these people has something quite pure and Franciscan about it.”

“I did not expect to win such an important award with a documentary,” Rosi said as he was handed the Golden Lion. “I would like to thank Bertolucci and the festival’s director Alberto Barbera who had faith in this film and broke down a barrier: finally documentaries can be compared to fiction, documentary is cinema.” 

(Translated from Italian)