FILM: Venice Film Festival 2022 – The VENEZIA 79 Jury, chaired by Julianne Moore, presented the Golden Lion award for Best Film to Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras’ documentary about photographer Nan Goldin and her activism against the Sackler family and their art connections, won the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
“I’ve never met anyone like Nan,” Poitras said in her acceptance speech. She praised Goldin as “courageous” in her protests against the Sackler family, whom Poitras described as “ruthless.”
Poitras also called for the release of Jafar Panahi, the imprisoned Iranian director who directed No Bears, which premiered at the festival, and encouraged “all of us to do whatever we can.”
Iran arrested and banned Panahi from making films in 2010. Yet, he has continued to create award-winning films which give a humanistic perspective on life in Iran.
Panahi has been in custody since July 12 after going to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran to follow up on the whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad. They were arrested a few days prior. It later emerged the Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a suspended six-year sentence originally handed out to Panahi in 2010 alongside a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban.
Top acting awards
Cate Blanchett and Colin Farrell won the top acting prizes. Blanchett for her performance as a renowned conductor in Todd Field’s TÁR. Farrell played a man who has broken up with by his longtime friend in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.
“Thank you so much, it’s such an enormous honour,” Blanchett said. “I’m shocked to get this and thrilled,” Farrell said in a live video message. McDonagh was on site to collect the prize before he received one of his own for his screenplay.
List of winners
GOLDEN LION for Best Film to: ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED by Laura Poitras (USA)
SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE to: SAINT OMER by Alice Diop (France)
SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to: Luca Guadagnino for the film BONES AND ALL (USA, Italy)
COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress: Cate Blanchett in the film TÁR by Todd Field (USA)
COPPA VOLPI for Best Actor: Colin Farrell in the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)
AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to: Martin McDonagh for the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to: KHERS NIST (NO BEARS) by Jafar Panahi (Iran)
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best Young Actor or Actress to: Taylor Russell in the film BONES AND ALL by Luca Guadagnino (USA, Italy)
