The International Film Critics’ Week (SIC), the autonomous, parallel section of the Venice Film Festival, has announced the winners of its 41st edition.

The international jury, made up of French director Chloé Barreau, Hungarian producer Júlia Berkes, and writer, cultural curator and film-industry professional Caterina Mazzucato, bestowed the IWONDERFULL Grand Prize upon Tommaso Usberti’s Before the War. The jury praised its intense direction, expressive lead performance and accomplished mise-en-scène as well as its exploration of toxic masculinity, impossible desire and individual loneliness. It described the French-Italian co-production as a raw and highly cinematic work revealing a distinctive directorial voice. The film also picked up the Luciano Sovena Award for Best Independent Production, with the jury highlighting the way its production reconciles limited means with an ambitious blend of realism, magic, violence and tenderness.

Meanwhile, Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas’ The End of Times earned a Special Mention from the international jury. The Colombian film, which uses family archives and artificial intelligence to explore memory, fiction and the violent history of Colombia and Latin America, was singled out for the freedom with which it reshapes personal archival material and reflects on cinema’s capacity to reinvent the past. The title also walked away with the Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Prize for Best Technical Contribution. The dedicated jury – Ilaria Feole, Michele Gottardi and Aldo Spiniello – praised its editing and the way it brings VHS footage and AI-generated imagery together within the same audiovisual language.

Shalini Adnani’s Our Share of Sand snagged the Audience Award. The Indian-UK-Greek co-production centres on a 12-year-old girl who returns to India and gradually becomes aware of the exploitation and moral compromises surrounding her father’s sand-mining business.

The Verona Film Club Prize for Most Innovative Film went to Dong Jie’s Zoom In, Zoom Out. The jury highlighted its depiction of a reality in which physical and virtual spaces increasingly overlap, and its use of a youthful cinematic language to investigate the post-digital existence of a generation whose emotions, fears and relationships are mediated by technology.

In the shorts strand, SIC@SIC (Short Italian Cinema @ International Film Critics’ Week), the jury composed of Raffaella Di Giulio, Giulia Grandinetti and Paola Piacenza awarded the Prize for Best Short Film to Noemi Arfuso’s E-I-E-I-O, commending its ironic approach to a pressing contemporary issue and its vision of nature reclaiming control once human bodies disappear. Caterina Bertini and Blu Diego Fasoli’s Where the Tears Await received a Special Mention, while Paoli De Luca picked up the Best Director Award for Revolver. Finally, Giulia Cosentino’s If Things Could Ever Talk won both the Best Technical Contribution Award and the National Short Film Centre Award.

Here is the full list of this year’s winners:

Feature Film Competition

International Film Critics’ Week IWONDERFULL Grand Prize
Before the War – Tommaso Usberti (France/Italy)

Special Mention
The End of Times – Bibiana Rojas Gómez, Juan David Cárdenas (Colombia)

Verona Film Club Prize for Most Innovative Film
Zoom In, Zoom Out – Dong Jie (China)

Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Prize for Best Technical Contribution
The End of Times – Bibiana Rojas Gómez, Juan David Cárdenas

Audience Award
Our Share of Sand – Shalini Adnani (India/UK/Greece)

Luciano Sovena Award for Best Independent Production
Before the War – Tommaso Usberti

Short Film Competition (SIC@SIC)

Best Short Film
E-I-E-I-O – Noemi Arfuso (Italy)

Special Mention
Where the Tears Await – Caterina Bertini, Blu Diego Fasoli (Italy)

Best Director
Paoli De Luca – Revolver (Italy)

Best Technical Contribution & National Short Film Centre Award
If Things Could Ever Talk – Giulia Cosentino (Italy/France)

Galerie de photo 11/09/2026 : Venice 2026 - Settimana Internazionale della Critica Awards Ceremony

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Tommaso Usberti
© 2026 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it