All The Beauty And The Bloodshed wins best film at Venice Film Festival
VENICE - A documentary, All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras, was awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on Saturday (Sept 10) by a competition jury led by US actress Julianne Moore.
The film, about photographer Nan Goldin, won the top prize over strong competitors.
“I’ve never met anyone like Nan,” Poitras said in her acceptance speech, praising Goldin as “courageous” in her protests against America's Sackler family, whom Poitras described as “ruthless”.
The film examines Goldin’s art, life and her activism against the family behind Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, for their roles in the opioid crisis.
The opioid addiction crisis has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over the past 20 years – and the Sacklers' company has been ordered to pay up to US$6 billion (S$8.4 billion) in damages.
Poitras also called for the release of Jafar Panahi, the imprisoned Iranian director who directed No Bears, which premiered at the festival, and encouraged “all of us to do whatever we can”.
The Silver Lion Grand Jury prize went to Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, her feature about a novelist who becomes engrossed in the trial of a woman accused of leaving her baby on a beach to die – a story based on real events.
The Silver Lion award for best director went to Luca Guadagnino for Bones And All, a first for the Italian film director.
The Special Jury prize went to Panahi for No Bears. His award was accepted by two of the film’s actors, Mina Kavani and Reza Heydari, in his absence.
The Volpi Cup for best actress was awarded to Cate Blanchett, who played a fictional famous composer in Tar, directed by Todd Field.
She vowed to “drink a lot of red wine” out of the Volpi Cup, and thanked “people around the world who make music which has kept us going in the last couple of years”.
The best actor award went to Colin Farrell for his portrayal of an Irishman whose pal abruptly ends their friendship in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin.
Taylor Russell won the Marcello Mastroianni Award, which recognises an outstanding emerging actor, for her performance as a young cannibal in Bones And All.
The best screenplay honor was given to McDonagh, who wrote and directed The Banshees Of Inisherin. Diop’s Saint Omer also received the Lion of the Future Award for best debut feature.
Netflix had been hoping for a big year, but its much-hyped Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, tested the patience of many critics, despite acclaim for its Cuban star Ana de Armas.
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