Pedro Almodóvar (Calzada de Calatrava, 1949) made history at the Venice Film Festival by winning the Golden Lion with The next piece. Never before had a Spanish film won such an award, the second most important in the world of festivals after the Palme d’Or at Cannes, which still eludes us. The one who won it was Luis Buñuel, but with a French film: Beauty of the day (1967).
Pedro Almodóvar has a memorable career in terms of accolades, winning gold at one of the four major festivals. He had it very close at Cannes with All About My Mother in 1999, but it was finally Venice that surrendered to the feet of the man from La Mancha. From now on, the golden feline will accompany his two Oscar winners on its trophy shelf.
And he did it with his first film entirely spoken in English, shot partly in New York (most of the interiors were set in Madrid). It is a drama with an atmosphere of serenity. thriller (to which Alberto Iglesias’ music contributes like no other element) about two women who rediscover a forgotten friendship at the moment when one of them ends her life, diagnosed with terminal cancer.
A film that addresses the theme of death in depth, in its most luminous and vitalist form, and which stars two enormous actresses in a state of grace, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. And in which Almodóvar continues to refine his style, delving into its essence, without renouncing bright colors and claiming freedom, desire and empathy. As in Parallel mothersalso has time to denounce what he doesn’t like in the world, such as the mistreatment of the environment or the rise of the extreme right.
After years of rumors and frustrated projects, Almodóvar has finally realized his dream of releasing a film in English, without resorting to the big Hollywood studios or betting on a big production. The next piecewhich adapts a novel by Sigrid Nunez, is an intimate film, shot under the aegis of her production company El Deseo, with regular collaborators and accomplices.
San Sebastian is now waiting for the director from La Mancha, where he will receive the Donostia Award, and the film will be previewed on October 18. And above all, a major promotion in the United States, where the film is sure to compete for the Oscars. The beginning could not have been better.
Although the film was initially received with a certain coldness by the international press present at the festival, The next piece It started to ring loudly for the Golden Lion after the director and actresses received a 17-minute standing ovation at the premiere. Above it appeared only The Brutalistby American Brady Corbet, best known for his acting roles in Michael Haneke or Lars von Trier, and Aprilby Georgian Dea Kulumbegashvili, who with her first film had already won the Golden Shell in San Sebastian.
Best Director for The Brutalist
Brady Corbet won best director for The Brutalista monumental film of more than three and a half hours that tells the adventures of Lászlo Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Jewish architect who flees post-war Hungary in 1947. Although he lives in poverty upon his arrival in the United States, an encounter with a millionaire (Guy Pearce) in the country’s golden years changes his life forever. With his pharaonic buildings in cold concrete, Tóth brings a new modernity to the capital of the empire.
This portrait of the American dream, which draws inspiration from a classic like Spring (King Vidor, 1949) captivated Venice for its risky storytelling, its powerful visual style – the film is shot on 70mm – and for Brody’s magnetic performance.
Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili made a huge impact in Venice from the very first screening of Aprila sensory drama about abortion in the rural world. She won the Special Jury Prize with a film that tells the story of Nina, a gynecologist who begins to be questioned after the death of a newborn during childbirth, victim of rumors that accuse her of practicing illegal abortions.
According to the filmmaker, abortion in her country is legal up to 12 weeks, but each clinic has the right to choose whether to perform it, and when opportunities arise, it is almost impossible to find one where they perform it. Kulumbegashvili spent nearly a year observing the work of doctors in a maternity ward and life in rural communities. Through this immersion, some women allowed her to film their births, explicit images that appear in the film.
The film also stood out at the Lido for its visual poetry, already very present in Beginning (2020), and for a striking script, with touches of fantasy. “Sometimes it is easy to no longer see the beauty of the world because of the difficulties of life, but beauty is always there,” the director said at a press conference at the Lido.
Italian Maura Delpero won the Grand Jury Prize for Vermiglio, which follows a large family in the last year of World War II and how the arrival at the home of a deserted soldier brings peace to the air.
Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega won the award for best screenplay for I’m still herea film by Walter Salles based on the memoirs of Marcelo Rubens Paiva, in which he recounts how his mother was forced into political activism when her husband, left-wing congressman Rubens Paiva, was captured by the regime during Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971.
French actor Vincent Lindon won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Playing with fireby Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, where he plays Pierre, a fifty-year-old railway worker who has to deal with a son who joins far-right groups.
The Volpi Cup for Best Actress went to Nicole Kidman for babygirl, a thriller erotic film in which he shares a cast with the Spaniard Antonio Banderas. Kidman was unable to attend the ceremony due to the death of her mother, so it was the director Halina Reijn who received the award.
The Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actor was awarded to French actor Paul Kircher, who has already shone in Dialogue with life (Christophe Honoré) and who now eats up the screen in the drama Their children after themby Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma.
Italian Nanni Moretti received the award for best restored film for Ecce Bombo (1978), by the Swedish Alexandre O. Philippe, best film on cinema with Chain reactionsand the American Sarah Friedland, the Lion of the Future, the prize for the best first film of the festival, for Family touch. Later, she herself would win the award for best direction in the Orizzonti section.
In this section, Iranian Nader Saeivar won the Audience Award for The witnesswhich he dedicated to the imprisoned Jafar Panahi; Canadian Arshia Shakiba, the award for best short film for Who loves the sun; the Palestinian Scandar Copti, the one with the best script for Happy Holidays; Italian Francesco Gheghi, best actor for Family; American veteran Kathleen Chalfant, best actress for Family touch; Murat Firatoglu, the Special Jury Prize for One of those days when Hemme diesand Bogdan Muresanu, best film for The new year that never came.
