Nicole Kidman wins Best Actress in Venice. Best Actor goes to Frenchman Vincent Lindon.
Spanish cult director Pedro Almodóvar has received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his relationship drama “The Room Next Door”. The 74-year-old accepted the main prize at the renowned festival on the Lido on Saturday evening. “The Room Next Door” is the Spaniard’s first film shot in English. Australian actress Nicole Kidman won the award for best actress, while Frenchman Vincent Lindon was named best actor.
The drama “The Room Next Door” tells the story of two friends who have to deal with death. Tilda Swinton plays a woman with terminal cancer who asks an old friend (Julianne Moore) for a complicated favor. She doesn’t want to be alone at the moment of her self-chosen death. The film is based on the novel “What’s Missing You” by Sigrid Nunez.
Pedro Almodóvar is Spain’s most internationally famous director. His film “All About My Mother” won an Oscar in 2000. The 74-year-old received another Oscar in 2003 for “Talk to Her”.
Kidman wins with erotic drama
In “Babygirl,” Kidman (57) plays a woman who lives out long-suppressed sexual desires. The erotic drama by Dutch director Halina Reijn tells the story of female desire in an innovative way. Kidman plays a businesswoman who begins an affair with a much younger intern (Harris Dickinson).
In the drama “Jouer avec le feu” by Delphine and Muriel Coulin, Lindon (65) plays a single father who has to deal with the fact that one of his sons is diving into the right-wing extremist milieu.
The Italian director Maura Delpero received the Grand Jury Prize for her film “Vermiglio”. The awards were presented by an international jury, chaired by the French actress Isabelle Huppert.
