On Sunday, the Venice Film Festival Awards were presented by this year’s jury. Isabelle Huppert was the jury president, and she was joined by James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi. It has not been a strong edition, and it was far from obvious which one of the 21 films in the competition would be awarded. There were some critic favourites, such as The Brutalist (especially), April, and Babygirl, but it’s far from always the case that the jury shares the critics’ taste.
The biggest shock of the evening was saved for the end. The Golden Lion was given to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. After a long career, it was the first win for the 74-year-old director, and even some of his fans seemed to find it an odd choice.
My thoughts on Almodóvar’s frustrating film can be found in my review.
The Silver Lion—Grand Jury Prize was also somewhat surprising since it went to Vermiglio by Maura Delpero. Most people would have expected Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist here or even higher, but it had to settle for the award for Best Director. Nevertheless, Corbet sounded thankful in his long acceptance speech. I reviewed Corbet’s film as well.
The Actors Awards still bear the name of the festival’s founder, Guiseppe Volpi. Venice has not chosen to go the same route as the Berlinale when they found out that Alfred Bauer had ties with nazism. The Coppa Volpi for best actor went to Vincent Lindon for his role in Jouer avec le feu, where he portrays a widowed father whose oldest son becomes drawn to an ideology alien to him.
More interestingly, Nicole Kidman won the award for Best Actress for her role in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. This could be seen or construed as vindication of the fact that the masterful Birth was booed at Venice 20 years ago. Sadly, Kidman was unable to attend since her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, passed away during the festival. The award was picked up by the director, Halina Reijn, on her behalf. It was one of the jury’s few inspired choices since Kidman’s performance is near perfect.
The Special Jury Prize went to April by Dea Kulumbegashvili, a work that caused polarised reactions. I am sceptical of both poles. A review will follow soon about this film concerning abortions in the Georgia countryside.
The Award for Best Screenplay was given to Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for the surprisingly popular I’m Still Here by Walter Salles.
The Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress was bestowed upon Paul Kircher for his role in the film Leurs enfants après eux by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma.
Venice Film Festival Awards 2024 – Omissions
In a competition section with few standouts, it would seem that it would be impossible to miss the signs of greatness that were present. Still, the jury managed to ignore Stranger Eyes by Yeo Siew Hua altogether. The director’s debut feature, A Land Imagined (Huan Tu 2018), won the Golden Leopard at the decidedly more arty festival of Locarno. His sophomore film received nothing, even though it was clearly one of the most impressive films of the festival. Stay tuned for a review of that title, as well. Another major snub was Luca Guagdanino’s Queer. Some people also expressed disappointment that Wang Bing’s Homecoming didn’t get any recognition from the jury.
The 2024 edition was a lacklustre one, not least compared to last year when several of my favourite films were first screened on Lido. The long-awaited Joker: Folie à deux did not seem to resonate with anyone, whether they were fans of the surprise 2019 Golden Lion winner or not. It has not been a great film festival year, and Venice was no exception. The year’s best films might have been presented at the Berlinale in February. It remains to be seen what the autumn festivals might bring, including the Black Nights Festival In Tallinn in November.
The entire list of the 2024 Venice Film Festival can be found on the festival’s webpage.