The Golden Lion, or top prize at the Venice Film Festival, went to The Next Room, the first film made by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in English. The statue for the best female performance goes to Nicole Kidman for the erotic thriller Babygirl. However, since her mother died, she did not attend the ceremony.
The award for best actor went to Frenchman Vincent Lindon, who portrayed a father struggling with one of his sons’ extreme right-wing tendencies in the film Jouer avec le feu (Playing with Fire).
Almodóvar’s first English-language film, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, received an eighteen-minute standing ovation at its premiere earlier this week, one of the longest the festival can remember since recently. Side room dealing with topics such as euthanasia and climate change. It tells the story of an old war journalist who is dying of cancer and decides to end her life voluntarily. Before that, however, she wants to spend the last days with her former colleague who has been a writer.
The Spanish director is in Venice popular, he has performed many of his works at the festival over the past forty years. “I would like to dedicate this award to my family,” he said at Saturday’s ceremony Pedro Almodovar. “This is my first film in English, but it has a Spanish spirit,” he said.
He also spoke again to introduce euthanasia, as he had already done in Venice at the world premiere. “I really think it should be a basic human right to be able to leave this world with dignity when you see fit,” he said. At the gala night, he celebrated the performance of the main actors .
“I have good news for you,” French actress Isabelle Huppert, who chaired the jury this year, said at the ceremony. “The cinema is in good shape,” she said briefly. after that.
The main jury, which also included the Polish director Agnieszka Holland, chose from 21 films. The favorite was not obvious. There were high expectations for the film Joker: Folie à deux, the first part of which won the Golden Lion in 2019. However, the reaction of critics to the sequel directed by Todd Philips is rather lukewarm, so negative.
Apart from Almodóvar’s novel, adaptations of the novel had a better response Queer writer William Burroughs from Italian director Luca Guadagnino or Brady Corbet’s 215-minute post-war epic The Brutalist with Adrien Brody. At least Corbet got the award for directing on Saturday night.
In addition, the actors Nicole Kidman and Vincent Lindon received the most viewed images. “Shortly after arriving in Venice, I learned that my mother, Janelle Kidman, had died. I am in shock and I need to be with my family. This award is for her,” the 57-year-old actress said in a statement. She read in her absence at the ceremony. Photo Childfor which she won an award, about a high-ranking manager’s romance with an intern.
“I’m very moved. I thank the whole jury,” said 65-year-old Vicent Lindon, who thanked the directors of his film Jouer avec le feu, the sister duo Muriel Coulin and Delphine Coulin.
Vermiglio received the Silver Lion from the Italian director Maura Delpero. It deals with the last year of the Second World War, in which a young fighter who seeks refuge comes to the family of a teacher in a small mountain town.
Video: Teaser trailer from the movie The Next Room
Czech cinemas will release the film Vedlejší pokoj on December 5. | Video: Warner Bros.
