Italian-French director Tommaso Usberti’s Before The War (Prima Della Guerra) has won the grand prize for best film and the best producer award in Venice Critics’ Week, announced on Friday (September 11).
A story of contemporary masculinity, Usberti’s debut is set in Italy’s Po Valley and tells the story of twenty-something Guido, raised amid violence and racism, and his encounter with Sonia, a young Kosovar immigrant.
It is produced by Thibault de Gantes and Lucas Le Postec of France’s L’Heure d’été, Francesco Virga, Adele Dell’Erario and Marco Serrecchia of Italy’s MIR Cinematografica, and Beatrice Bordone Bulgari of Italy’s Eolo Film Productions. International sales are handled by The Party Film Sales.
The jury of French director Chloé Barreau, Hungarian producer Júlia Berkes and writer and curator Caterina Mazzucato cited the film “for its intense and vibrant direction, for the powerful and expressive talent of its lead actor, for the mastery of its mise-en-scène, thanks to superbly crafted images in which bodies, faces and gestures create an impressive physical tension — while provincial Italy becomes the stage for violent passions.”
Seven features films played in Critic’s Week competition.
There was a special mention in the grand prize category for The End of Times by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas, which also won the award for best technical contribution. The film mixes found footage and AI to explore trauma and depression. Zagreb-based Split Screen handles sales.
The audience award went to Our Share of Sand by Shalini Adnani, a family drama that reflects on inequality and the environmental crisis.
The Circolo del Cinema di Verona Award for the most innovative film in the selection went to Zoom In, Zoom Out by Dong Jie.
London, the debut feature of Brazilian filmmakers Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli won ex aequo the Queer Lion Award 2026, the festival’s official award for films dealing with LGBTQIA+ themes.
Beatrcie Fiorentina, general delegate for Venice Critics’ Week, said: “A list of award winners that perfectly reflects the breadth of our programme, from its most accessible works to its most radical, while above all recognising its profoundly contemporary character, firmly rooted in the complexities of the present.
”We live in a world undergoing profound change, and the response from both the juries and audiences was immediate, embracing the different directions explored by this year’s selection: from Prima della guerra, a poetic reflection on masculinity, racism, violence and the need for love in these dark times, with the threat of war looming over us, to The End of Times, which transcends genres to become both a theoretical reflection on the image and a political discourse on imperialism; from Our Share of Sand, a family story that evolves into a moral dilemma and an indictment of the exploitation of labour and resources, to Zoom In, Zoom Out, deeply engaged with the use of technology and a true manifesto film for Gen Z.”
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