Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, becoming only the second documentary to take the top prize in the event’s 90-year history.
”I need to thank the festival first and foremost, for understanding that documentary is cinema,” said US director Poitras, accepting the award. She proceeded to voice support for Iranian filmmaker and fellow Competition director Jafar Panahi, who is currently under arrest in his home country.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
”I call on all of us to do whatever we can with whatever we have to release Jafar Panahi,” said Poitras. The director then dedicated the award to Dianne Weyermann, the chief content officer of the film’s producer Participant, who died last year aged 66.
Poitras’ film, about artist Nan Goldin and her attempts to bring down the Sackler family responsible for the opioid epidemic, follows Gianfranco Rosi’s 2013 Sacro GRA as a non-fiction title taking the top award.
It also marks the third year in a row that a film directed by a woman has won the prize, after Audrey Diwan’s Happening last year and Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland in 2020.
Altitude is representing world sales on All The Beauty… and will release it in the UK and Ireland. Neon handles US distribution.
Saint Omer, Banshees win
Alice Diop scooped two prizes for her fiction feature debut Saint Omer – the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize, and the Luigi De Laurentis Lion of the Future award for best debut film.
With the prizes considered early indicators of success in the upcoming awards season, home favourite Luca Guadagnino took the best director prize for cannibal love story Bones And All, with Taylor Russell receiving the Marcello Mastroianni best new talent award for her performance in the film.
The two main acting prizes went to best actress Cate Blanchett for TÁR and best actor Colin Farrell for The Banshees Of Inisherin, which also won best screenplay for Martin McDonagh.
The ceremony was hosted by Spanish actress Rocio Munoz Morales, who also hosted the opening ceremony. A jury led by Julianne Moore awarded the nine Competition prizes.
Winners in the Giornate degli Autori and International Critics’ Week sections were announced yesterday.
Venice Film Festival 2022 awards
Competition
Golden Lion for best film – All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, dir. Laura Poitras
Silver Lion grand jury prize – Saint Omer, dir. Alice Diop
Silver Lion for best director – Luca Guadagnino, Bones And All
Coppa Volpi for best actress – Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Coppa Volpi for best actor – Colin Farrell, The Banshees Of Inisherin
Best screenplay award – Martin McDonagh, The Banshees Of Inisherin
Special jury prize – No Bears, dir. Jafar Panahi
Marcello Mastroianni award for best new talent – Taylor Russell, Bones And All
Lion of the Future Luigi De Laurentis award for debut film – Saint Omer, dir. Alice Diop
Horizons
Best film – World War III, dir. Houman Seyyedi
Best director – Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmer, Vera
Special jury prize – Bread And Salt, dir. Damian Kocur
Best actress – Vera Gemma, Vera
Best actor – Mohsen Tanabandeh, World War III
Best screenplay – Fernando Guzzoni, Blanquita
Best short – Snow In September, dir. Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
Horizons Extra
Audience award – Nezouh, dir. Soudade Kaadan
Venice Classics
Best documentary – Fragments Of Paradise, dir. KD Davison
Best restored film – Branded To Kill, dir. Seijun Suzuki
Immersive
Best experience – The Man Who Couldn’t Leave, cre. Chen Singing
Grand jury prize – From The Main Square, cre. Pedro Harres
Special jury prize – Eggscape, cre. German Heller, Jorge Tereso, Federico Heller
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