email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Closing ceremony

by 

- The Russian Zvyagintsev hits the jackpot at Venice winning both the biggest prize and the award for the best debut film. A scorned Bellocchio deserts the ceremony. Europe wins out with Germany

VIDEO: THE WINNERS

ALL THE PRIZES

Victory went to a Russian film with a poetic touch; Marco Bellocchio who leaves the Lido in a huff after he realised he’d only won a prize for his screenplay; Europe has a solid showing, especially thanks to Germany. This is the overview of a Festival that is the confirmation of Moritz de Hadeln’s excellent performance at the helm, but once again it was a disaster from the organisational point of view.
So, the Golden Lion was awarded to The Return, by the Russian Andrey Zvyagintsev. A "marvellous debut", as it was defined by the great Italian critic Tullio Kezich, which is immensely touching in its mysterious meanderings. The film also won the De Laurentis Prize for a First Work. Over the past few days it has been bought by Andrea Occhipinti’s Lucky Red, which is planning a November release for the film in Italian cinemas.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Whereas post-soviet Armenia is the setting for Vodka Lemon, the film by the Kurdish director Hiner Saleem, winning the Controcorrente section, which de Hadeln has brought up to the level of the main competition. Vodka Lemon is produced for Cinefacto by Fabrice Guez in collaboration with Italy (Sintra Film), Switzerland (Amka Films) and Armenia (Paradise) and with the support of Arte France Cinéma. Vodka Lemon is the delicate love story between a widow and a widower in a tiny village buried in deepest, snow-drenched Armenia. The director spoke of peace during the award ceremony: "Kurdistan and Iraq are living in year zero, on the path to democracy and reciprocal respect".

The Grand Jury Prize was flying high with Le cerf-volant by the Lebanese director Randa Chahal Sabbag, which is another tale of people separated by barbed wire: the division of the villages in the Golan in Syria after the war with Israel in June 1967. "I thank the production (the French, Humbert Balsan) and the Lebanese and French crew" said the director. "I gained a tremendous position here in Venice, I also hope that my region can have a political and geographic standing that is equally important".

And this leads us to Germany, with the Special Jury Prize in the Controcorrente section going to Schultze Gets the Blues by Michael Schorr, a virtually unknown film, at least at home according to de Hadeln, which has been bought for Italy by Lady Film. And the German director, Margarethe Von Trotta also gave Katja Riemann a magnificent role, who was award the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for her performance in Rosenstrasse: "I dedicate this prize – said the actress- to those women in Berlin in 1943 whose hearts were full of love and desperation, but who knew how to put up resistance against Nazism".

And if American cinema was only awarded for the talent of an independent rebel like Sean Penn (Coppa Volpi for Best Actor) starring in the film by the upcoming Mexican director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), the Italian hosts of the festival came out the worst: the jury wasn’t influenced by the unanimous tributes given by the public and the critics to Buongiorno, notte by Marco Bellocchio and an emotional Luigi Lo Cascio was left to collect the "Award for an Outstanding Individual Contribution" (for the screenplay). The director was irritated by this “consolation” prize and in the afternoon he left Venice to go to Rome, to receive his well deserved applause from a packed audience crammed in to a premiere screening in the capital. The only comfort for the Italian home team was the International Critics’ week prize given to Ballo a tre passi by Salvatore Mereu.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy