Venice Film Festival, the Jury awards Sorrentino

Venice Film Festival 78th edition. The Golden Lion went to the film ‘L’Événement’ by French director Audrey Diwan, but there are also prizes for Italy. The French film defends the abortion law by telling the very hard story of a student forced to face a dangerous clandestine abortion in anti-abortion France of the 60s. “We really loved this film and it was a unanimous decision,” said jury president Bong Joon Ho. Italy won with ‘It was the hand of God’, the autobiographical film by Paolo Sorrentino, which won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni Prize, destined for an emerging young actor, with the protagonist Filippo Scotti (“I am honored and excited as when Paolo chose me for the film”, he said with tears in his eyes). “You have to be patient because I am very excited. Not an easy film”, said Sorrentino who also included Maradona among the thanks. “Every now and then someone nasty says to me: ‘but why are you making another film with Toni Servillo?’ and I can now answer: ‘look where I have come by making films with Servillo’ “, said Sorrentino, moved to tears. As predicted on the eve, the women’s Coppa Volpi went to Penélope Cruz for the film ‘Madres Paralelas’ by Pedro Almodóvar who opened the exhibition on September 1st to applause. But the actress was also highly regarded in another film in competition: the comedy ‘Competencia Oficial’. “This award makes me very very happy, we all know how difficult it is to organize a festival right now”, said the actress after kissing her husband Javier Bardem to whom she dedicated the award, adding a dedication to her ‘parallel mothers’. , her mother and her mother-in-law, who passed away recently, after having predicted that Coppi Volpi would win. Surprisingly, even though the film had entered the toto-Leoni, the male Volpi Cup was instead awarded to Filipino actor John Arcilla for Erik Matti’s ‘On The Job: The Missing 8’ which beat the competition (by Toni Servillo , Vincent Lindon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscar Isaac and Yuriy Borisov) with the lead role in the nearly three and a half hour crime movie (the longest film in the competition). Arcilla thanked him with a video: “Even if we speak different languages ​​and come from different cultures, we understand each other and this is thanks to cinema”, he said. The Lion of the Future, named after Luigi De Laurentiis and dedicated to the best work first of all Venetian billboard, went to the Romanian film ‘Imaculat’ by Monica Stan and George Chiper-Lillemark of the Giornate degli Autori.In the Orizzonti section, the award for best film went to the Lithuanian film ‘Piligrimai (Pellegrini)’ by director Laurynas Bareiša, the one for best direction to the French Éric Gravel for the film ‘À Plein Temps’ and the special prize of the jury ‘El Gran Movimiento’ by Bolivian director Kiro Russo. The Horizons Award for Best Actress went to Laure Calamy starring in ‘À Plein Temps’ and Best Actor to Piseth Chhun for the film ‘Bodeng Sar (White Building)’ by Cambodian director Kavich Neang. The Horizons Award for Best Screenplay went to Peter Kerekes and Ivan Ostrochovský for the film ‘Cenzorka (107 Mothers)’ by Slovak director Peter Kerekes. The Horizons Award for Best Short Film went to ‘Los Huelos’ by Chilean directors Cristóbal Léon and Joaquín Cociña, who dedicated it to the victims of the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973. The Venice short film nomination for the european film awards 2021 went instead to ‘The fall of the ibis king’ by Irish directors Josh O’Caoimh and Mikai Geronimo. Finally, the new Audience Award of the newly formed Orizzonti Extra section went to the Finnish film ‘Sokea mies, joka ei halunnut nähdä Titanicia (The blind man who did not want to see Titanic)’ directed by Teemu Nikki and starring an actor seriously ill with multiple sclerosis which will be distributed in Italy next week.For the Venice Vr Expanded section, dedicated to virtual reality, the Grand Jury Prize for the best oper in Vr he went to ‘Goliath: playing with reality’ by Barry Gene Murphy and May Abdalla; the best VR experience award went to Blanca Li’s ‘Le bal de Paris de Blanca Li’ and the best Vr story award to David Adler’s ‘End of night’.