AND THE WINNERS ARE! The 69th Venice Film Festival

Pieta by Kim Ki-duk

(Venice, Italy) The 69th International Venice Film Festival ended on Saturday, September 8, 2012. The winner was Pieta by Kim Ki-duk, which I saw after the Golden Lion award was announced at the press conference. It's an uber-violent film by Kim Ki-duk of the Republic of Korea, and tells the story of a gruesome loan shark who cripples people for the insurance money when they don't pay back their loans on time. The mother who abandoned him shows up after thirty years, awakening human feelings in the brute.

Paul Thomas Anderson of The Master won for Best Director, which also won in the best actor category. The award was shared by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who flew in at the last minute and accepted both the awards on behalf of everybody. Hoffman apologized for his rumpled appearance, saying he had changed into a suit in the men's room.

Everybody's yacking about the rumors that The Master was supposed to win the Golden Lion, but couldn't because it had already won best director and best actor, and the rules in Venice are that the winner of the Golden Lion can't win any other awards.

The entire jury, headed by Michael Mann, was up on the podium during the press conference after the award ceremony, presenting a united front -- in the past, it's often been only the president of jury fending off the journalists. They said in no uncertain terms that the decisions had been arrived at after much serious consideration, and pointed out that they were truly an international jury, each member coming from a different country. The Venezia 69 Jury was comprised of Michael Mann, Marina Abramovic, Laetitia Casta, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Ari Folman, Matteo Garrone, Ursula Meier, Samantha Morton, and Pablo Trapero.

The Jury

Shekhar Kapur, the Indian director whom Americans will know best from his film Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett, was the head of the Luigi De Laurentiis award for the Lion of the Future. He spoke sincerely and said that after heading the jury, he was sure that the future of filmmaking was in very good hands. He was impressed by the quality of the contenders, the depth of the subject matter the young filmmakers were interested in, and pleased with their concerns about humanity.

As an aside, a couple of documentaries I really liked were Witness: Libya by Abdallah Omeish and Valentino's Ghost by Michael Singh.

From Ahramonline:

Director Michael Mann's production of "Witness Libya" is being shown out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival, where he is chairing the jury that will decide the winner of the coveted Golden Lion.

"Witness Libya" is one of a four-part HBO documentary series following combat photographers into conflict zones. In the Libya entry, a small crew follows American photographer Michael Christopher Brown into Libya a few months after the death of leader Moammar Gadhafi.

From the Hartley Film Foundation:

Valentino's Ghost is a 110-min. film that takes viewers on a chronological journey through more than a century of images of Muslims, Arabs and Islam in the U.S. media, from the early-20th-century fantasies of romantic sheiks and golden palaces to today's portrayals of fanatics. Polls show that 46 percent of Americans hold negative views of Islam, such as "Islam is a religion of hatred and violence." Valentino's Ghost will explore the media's role in perpetuating stereotypes about Arabs, Muslims and Islam as well as the media's role in setting the record straight.

Kim Ki-duk and his Golden Lion

The full list of winners is below.

GOLDEN LION for Best Film to PIETA by Kim Ki-duk (Republic of Korea)

SILVER LION for Best Director to THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to Paradies: Glaube by Ulrich Seidl (Austria, Germany, France)

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actor to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix

in the film THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)

Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress Hadas Yaron

in the film LEMALE ET HA’CHALAL by Rama Bursthein (Israel)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best New Young Actor or Actress to Fabrizio Falco

in the films BELLA ADDORMENTATA by Marco Bellocchio (Italy) and È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprí (Italy)

AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to Olivier Assayas

for the film APRES MAI by Olivier Assayas (France)

Apres Mai by Olivier Assayas

AWARD FOR THE BEST TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION (CINEMATOGRAPHY) to Daniele Ciprì

for the film È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprì (Italy)

• LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to KÜF (MOLD) by Ali Aydin (Turkey, Germany) VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS’ WEEK

as well as a prize of 100,000 USD, donated by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi De Laurentiis to be divided equally between director and producer

• ORIZZONTI

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM (full-length films) to

SAN ZIMEI by Wang Bing (France, Hong Kong)

SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE (full-length films) to

TANGO LIBRE by Frédéric Fonteyne (France, Belgium, Luxembourg)

ORIZZONTI YOUTUBE AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to

CHO-DE by Yoo Min-young (South Korea)

CHO-DE by Yoo Min-young - YouTube Award

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2012-EFA to

TITLOI TELOUS by Yorgos Zois (Greece)

GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2012

to Francesco Rosi

JAEGER-LECOULTRE GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER AWARD

to Spike Lee

PERSOL AWARD

to Michael Cimino

Heaven's Gate by Michael Cimino

L’ORÉAL PARIS PER IL CINEMA AWARD

to Giulia Bevilacqua

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog