‘Letters From the Silenced Country’ Wins Golden Globes Impact Prize at Venice Film Festival

7:02 PM ETDeveloping

Entertainment Desk

In Short: Scarmarcio dedicated his prize to all the fathers in the world and UK producer Jeremy Thomas, whose death was announced earlier in the day.

Scarmarcio dedicated his prize to all the fathers in the world as well as UK producer Jeremy Thomas, whose death at the age of 77 was announced earlier in the day.

Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy's Woman Unknown won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, making it one of just two films directed by women in the running for the Golden Lion this year.

Arcel won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in Woman Unknown, and Lee Chang-Dong scooped the Grand Jury Prize for Possible Love, a psychological thriller exploring the brutality of the modern labor system.

In the Orizzonti section, Diana in the Loop about a young woman who decides to avenge the rape of her mother took the Best Film award.

Recent Oscar nominees like 'At Eternity's Gate' lead Willem Dafoe and 'The Banshees of Inisherin' star Colin Farrell also won the Venice acting prize, with 'Banshees' being the last film to premiere at the Italian festival by McDonagh.

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In other main competition prizes, Lee Chang-Dong scooped the Grand Jury Prize for Possible Love, exploring the brutality of the modern labour system through two married couples: a laid-off worker and his wife, and a documentary filmmaker and her husband.
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor ‘s bombshell Israeli documentary Naza about the Israeli army’s targeting of civilians in Gaza, which drew a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere, won the Special Jury Prize, and Ilya Khrzhanovsky clinched Best Director for Dau.
That said, the last two East Asian films to be nominated for Best Picture are “Parasite” and “Drive My Car,” both of which won Oscars — they just didn’t receive any acting nominations.
If Venice has illuminated anything about the Oscar race, it’s that “ Wild Horse Nine ” star John Malkovich is the current frontrunner for Best Actor.
Even while scaling back the number of films it brought to the festival, Netflix still made a significant impact on Venice, with its film “Possible Love” from auteur Lee Chang-dong winning the Grand Jury Prize.
The drama has received the best reviews of all the narrative films in competition and has already been submitted by South Korea to represent the country in the Best International Feature category.
While it’s easy to say “Wild Horse Nine” will be a Best Picture nominee based on its reception and director Martin McDonagh’s Oscar track record alone, it is a lot harder to say whether or not “Possible Love” in particular will make the cut as the other major studio film to win a jury prize.
While there have been major strides in the past decade toward inclusivity of films in languages other than English in categories outside Best International Feature, the nominations still often end up very Eurocentric.

Sources

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