The Venice Film Festival awarded its Golden Lion on Saturday, September 7 to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, offering him, at 74 years of age, one of the most prestigious prizes of his immense career for his first American film. The room next doorMovida’s former enfant terrible features British actress Tilda Swinton and her American colleague Julianne Moore in a story of assisted suicide.
The award for best male actor was given to Frenchman Vincent Lindon for his role as a father in the face of one of his sons’ drift towards the violent far right in Playing with fire. “I am extremely touched (…) Thank you to the entire jury!” said the 65-year-old actor, an essential face of French cinema and the cinematic embodiment of an angry man with obvious flaws. “I would like to thank Muriel and Delphine Coulin”the directors, he added.
Australian-American star Nicole Kidman won the best actress award by reversing her glamorous image in little girla new generation erotic thriller. In her absence, a message from the 57-year-old actress was read on stage: “Shortly after my arrival in Venice I learned of the death of my mother Janelle Kidman. I am in shock and need to be with my family. This award is for her.”.
Another French actor, Paul Kircher, received the revelation award for his role in Their children behind themadapted from the novel by Nicolas Mathieu. Adapted from a book that won the 2018 Prix Goncourt and was a huge success, the film is “the story of teenagers and a generation growing up with a burning desire to participate in the world and being left behind”said 22-year-old Paul Kircher upon receiving the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Performer.
