The 81st Venice Film Festival came to a close yesterday, September 7, with the prestigious Golden Lion awarded to “The Room Next Door,” a new film by renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.
The Room Next Door film depicts an intimate relationship between two women, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton who were once very close friends. After years of separation, they reunite when one of them faces a terminal cancer diagnosis.
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Notably, this film marks Almodovar’s first English-language project in his illustrious career. The 74-year-old director is already a two-time Academy Award winner, having won Best Foreign Language Film for “All About My Mother (1999)” and Best Original Screenplay for “Talk to Her (2002).”
The Grand Jury Prize went to “The Mountain Bride,” a powerful drama directed by Italy’s Maura Delpero. The Silver Lion for Best Director went to American filmmaker Brady Corbett for his highly anticipated epic, “The Brutalist.” Widely regarded as one of the festival’s top contenders.
In the acting categories, Nicole Kidman took home the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in “Bad Girl.“
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Other major winners included April, which earned the Special Jury Prize, and I’m Still Here, which won Best Screenplay. Young actor Paul Kircher received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor for his performance in “And the Children After Them.“
In the “Horizons” section, Romanian director Bogdan Muresanu’s “The New Year That Never Came” was named Best Film.
The jury for this year’s festival was chaired by iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert. According to Variety, the panel faced a challenging decision process, with reports suggesting there may have been a deliberate move to not award the top prize to an American film, given that U.S. productions have dominated the Venice festival, winning five times in the last seven years.