VENICE 2026 Giornate degli Autori / Awards

Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion wins the GdA Director’s Award in the Giornate degli Autori

11/09/2026 - VENICE 2026: The film by María Aparicio has taken home the top prize; the Europa Cinemas Label went to A Woman Today and the People’s Choice Award to Balcanica

Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion by Argentinian filmmaker María Aparicio has emerged as the winner of the GdA Director’s Award, presented on 11 September during the Giornate degli Autori awards ceremony. The film was chosen by a jury chaired by Spanish director Carla Simón, and also composed of Italian director-editor Sara Fgaier and Hania Mroué, head of Beirut’s Metropolis arthouse cinema. The €20,000 prize will be split between the director and the film’s international distributor.

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“A film that portrays the solitude of the present, fusing together an intimate dimension and a political charge, inviting us to reflect on work, immigration and privilege through a delicate mise-en-scène built on small gestures, rather than grand events,” reads the statement of the jury, who selected it from among the ten titles in competition. “We left the cinema deeply moved, by a sadness and a spirit of rebellion that are not in opposition, but coexist, like two facets of the same disorientation.”

The second official accolade of the Giornate, the Europa Cinemas Label, went to A Woman Today by Robert Guédiguian. Awarded by a jury made up of exhibitors from the Europa Cinemas network and supported by the European Union’s MEDIA programme, the prize provides the film with promotional and distribution support in European theatres. The jury praised the movie for the way it interweaves a private story with political and social dimensions. “With empathy but without simplifying things, Robert Guédiguian captures the tensions between apparent freedom, success and persistent social expectations, between professional independence, sexuality, the desire for intimacy and the need to live one’s life on one’s own terms. The film is equally effective in observing society, informed by the colonial past, and in portraying its protagonist’s inner world – her doubts, vulnerability, defiance and search for a new direction in life.”

Rounding off the list of winners is the People’s Choice Award, decided upon directly by viewers at the end of the Official Selection screenings in the Sala Perla. The winner was Balcanica by Nicola Sorcinelli. The film, which recounts how a father and son, who are musicians, escape from Afghanistan, garnered 76% of the audience vote.

Finally, there was the SIAE Award for Creative Talent, presented within the context of the Giornate degli Autori in recent days. The accolade went to Cosimo Messeri for The Massacre, showcased among the GdA Special Events. The movie is a “sincere and original reflection on the condition of those who create: on the strain of waiting, on uncertainties, on failures and on the tenacity needed to turn an intuition into a finished work,” reads the statement by Roberto Cicutto, chairman of SIAE’s supervisory board. “Messeri directs, writes, scores, stars in and produces the film, fully embodying the figure of the contemporary auteur.”

Here is the full list of award winners:

GdA Director’s Award
Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion - María Aparicio (Spain/Argentina)

Europa Cinemas Label
A Woman Today - Robert Guédiguian (France/Italy)

People’s Choice Award
Balcanica - Nicola Sorcinelli (Italy/Serbia/Croatia)

SIAE Award for Creative Talent
Cosimo Messeri - The Massacre (Italy)