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The 79th Venice International Film Festival happened from August 31st to September 10th. The festival received a lot of attention, being one of the most prestigious and oldest film festivals in the world. Various movies premiered during the festival, including the feminist polemic Don't Worry, Darling and the the highly anticipated Blonde.
The Venice International Film Festival's first edition happened in 1923. The award's intention was to help the art of cinema and had some of the biggest political and cultural support: including the fascist government. The festival was used as a propaganda medium for some time. The audience used to vote and decide the winners of the categories in a surprisingly democratic process until the fascist government started to influence the winners and impose their will.
The 79th Venice International Film Festival received a lot of attention this year, from controversy and curiosity surrounding the films and the professionals in the industry to the much-awaited movies themselves. Here is every big winner of this year's edition.
Best Young Actor - Taylor Russell
Taylor Russell for Bones and All
Taylor Russell received the award for Best Young Actor for her performance in Bones and All. The film is based on the novel by Camille DeAngelis and is a coming-of-age story of a cannibal young girl that embarks on a journey on the road where she falls in love. Russel plays the protagonist in the movie. The actress has been a part of a few movies before this role, such as Escape Room 2 and The Waves, but this is the first time she has gained critical acclaim and real recognition.
Best Actress - Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett for Tár
Cate Blanchett received the award for Best Actress in her portrayal of the fiction world-renowned composer Lydia Tár on her journey to be the best composer she can be. Tár is set in the classical music world, and follows the prestigious composer. The movie ended the 16- year gap between director Todd Field after his two great films In the Bedroom and Little Children.
Already considered to be an Oscar contender, Blanchett's performance is mind-blowing. The actress learned to speak German, play the piano and conduct an orchestra for the role, and needless to say, her work paid off.
Best Actor - Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin
Colin Farrell received the award of Best Actor for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin. Farrell portrayed an optimistic person in the middle of a war which created a lot of negative and unhappy people; the film follows him trying to understand why his good friend suddenly stopped speaking to him. Some state that Farrell may have given one of the best performances of the year in this melancholic film about friendship and art.
Best Screenplay - Martin McDonagh
The Banshees of Inisherin, written by Martin McDonagh
The great Martin McDonagh received the Best Screenplay award for his movie The Banshees of Inisherin. The director is known for creating angry and pessimistic characters in darkly funny films like In Bruges, and this movie has some of them, but it also has perhaps his most pure and decent character. The film is set on a fictional island in Ireland called Inisherin. The movie explores a lot of important subjects, especially male friendship and pride. The story is about two lifelong friends that fight, and one of them decides to end their friendship, but the consequences are nothing short of grand. The movie received a 13-minute ovation.
Silver Lion for Best Director - Luca Guadagnino
Bones and All, dir. Luca Guadagnino
Director Luca Guadagnino, known for Call Me By Your Name and I Am Love, received the Silver Lion for Best Director for his coming-of-age horror movie, Bones and All. The narrative about two cannibals on the road has its moments of gore, but they are not the highlight of the movie. Guadagnino's name brings some expectation, and how he decided to tell this unusually violent love story (with a sensitivity and naturalism known in his body of work) is what sets this movie apart.
Special Jury Prize - No Bears
No Bears, dir. Jafar Panahi
No Bears is an Iranian movie that was secretly shot in Iran. The movie is about two parallel love stories and the obstacles they have to face, such as the force of superstition and the mechanics of power. The narrative is such a deep hybrid blend between facts and fiction that it is not clear at the end whether the events shown were invented or a part of reality. The brilliant director was not able to attend the event because he was arrested in Iran for 'propaganda against the system,' and remains imprisoned despite international pleas.
Grand Jury Prize - Saint Omer
Saint Omer, dir. Alice Diop
Saint Omer received the Grand Jury Prize for Saint Omer, a dark history of infanticide and racism that is extremely heavy but important. Alice Diop made her spellbinding, brutal debut here with a film that's almost like a historical re-reading of the classic Greek play Medea. The power of this violent narrative comes from the subtlety of the acting and directing choices, creating a very observational type of movie that's unafraid to flinch from the horrors of history, one that sometimes resembles reality so much that it comes close to the feeling of a documentary.
Golden Lion - All The Beauty and the Bloodshed
All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, dir. Laura Poitras
The movie that received the highest award of the night is a documentary by director Laura Poitras, All The Beauty and Bloodshed. The movie is a collaboration with photographer Nan Goldin, and both of them created a beautiful aesthetic to tell this particular story. The documentary, Poitras' follow-up to her award-winning films Citizenfour and My Country, My Country, is about families, focusing on two that couldn't be more different: Goldin's family and her activism to make the Saklers (the second family portrayed) responsible for the opioid addiction crisis perpetrated by their company Purdue Pharma.