VENICE (AP) – The Room Next Door , Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, topped the Venice Film Festival and was awarded its Golden Lion award on Saturday. Nicole Kidman was awarded the best actress prize, for her raw and exposing portrayal of a CEO embroiled in an affair with an intern in Babygirl , but missed the ceremony due to the death of her mother. “I arrived in Venice and found out shortly after that my beautiful, brave mother, Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed,” Kidman said in a statement read by Babygirl director Halina Reijn.
“I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. ..
. She shaped me and made me.” The 81st edition of the festival came to a close Saturday, with the Isabelle Huppert-led jury bestowing top prizes to Brady Corbet, for directing the 215-minute post-war epic The Brutalist and Vincent Lindon, for his lead performance in The Quiet Son .
Lindon plays a single father whose son is radicalised by the far right. Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio won the Silver Lion award, the runner up prize. The Italian-French-Belgian drama is about the last year of World War II, in which a refugee soldier happens upon a large family.
Almodóvar’s win came after his film, a meditation on friendship and death, received a nearly 20-minute standing ovation. The Spanish filmmaker is a Venice favorite, having premiered many of his films at the festival over the past four decades. “I would like to dedicate it to my family,” Almodóvar said.
“This movie ...
it is my first movie in English but the spirit is Spanish.” The Venice Film Festival used its closing film slot to host the world premiere of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 . The film played out of competition.
Many of the 21 competition titles were divisive, with passionate supporters and detractors. “I have good news for you,” Huppert said at the ceremony. “Cinema is in great shape.
” Among the highest profile of the films of the festival in competition were: Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux , the not-a-musical-musical with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga; and Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas film Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as the famed soprano..
