VENICE (dpa) – Indian film “Monsoon Wedding” has won top honors at the 58th annual Venice Film Festival.
The festival’s seven member jury selected Mira Nair’s film about the clash between tradition and modernity from 20 films in 11 languages. The Golden Lion for Best Picture was presented at the festival’s closing ceremony Saturday.
Iranian Babak Payami won the prize for Best Director for his film “Secret Ballot,” about democracy in an isolated area of Iran.
The Jury’s Grand Prize went to Austrian Ulrich Seidl’s “Hundstage.” The awards for best actress and actor both went to Italians, Sandra Ceccarelli and Luigi Lo Cascio. The two starred in Giuseppe Piccioni’s “Light of My Eyes” (Luce dei miei occhi).
This year, the festival offered for the first time a prize aimed at encouraging more daring and avant-garde productions. The Cinema of the Present Lion of the Year award went to Laurent Cantet of France for his film “The Use of Time” (L’Emploi du Temps.
Alfonso Cuaron won best screenplay for the Mexican box office hit “And Your Mother Too,” (Y tu Mama Tambien).
The festival jury was headed by Nanni Moretti, who won the Palm d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival.
Venezia 58. – Leone d’Oro
The International Jury of the Venezia 58, Nanni Moretti (president), Jeanne Balibar, Amitav Ghosh, Taylor Hackford, Cecilia Roth, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Vibeke Windeløv, has viewed the twenty-one films in competition and has assigned the following prizes:
Leone d’Oro for best film: MONSOON WEDDING by Mira Nair
Gran Premio della Giuria to the film: HUNDSTAGE by Ulrich Seidl
Special Prize for Director to the film: RAYE MAKHFI by Babak Payami
Prize for Best Screenplay to the film: Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN by Alfonso Cuarón
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor to:
LUIGI LO CASCIO for Luce dei miei occhi
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress to:
SANDRA CECCARELLI for Luce dei miei occhi
Premio Marcello Mastroianni to:
GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL – DIEGO LUNA for Y Tu Mamá También
Cinema del Presente – Leone dell’Anno
The Cinema del Presente International Jury, Shiguehiko Hasumi (president), Michel Ciment, Piera Detassis, Emanuel Levy, and Gavin Smith, has assigned the following prizes:
Leone dell’Anno for the film L’EMPLOI DU TEMPS by Laurent Cantet (with $100,000 donated by Telecom Italia, to be divided between the director and the producer)
Premio Speciale della Giuria Cinema del Presente
To the film: HAIXIAN by Zhu Wen
Premio Speciale della Giuria Cinema del Presente
To the film: LE SOUFFLE by Damien Odoul
Premio Opera Prima “Luigi De Laurentiis” – Leone del Futuro
The Jury of the Premio Venezia Opera Prima “Luigi De Laurentiis” – Leone del Futuro, Cédric Kahn (president), Francesco Casetti, Jafar Panahi, Jean-Loup Passek, and Ruth Vitale, has awarded the prize:
Leone del Futuro to the film KRUH IN MLEKO by Jan Cvitkovi?
(with $100,000 donated by Filmauro, to be divided between the director and the producer, plus 20,000 metres of film donated by Kodak)
Corto-Cortissimo
The Jury of Corto-Cortissimo, Francesca Comencini, (president), Jaques Kermabon, and Mário Micaelo, has assigned the following award for best short film:
Leone d’Argento to FREUNDE/THE WHIZ KIDS by Jan Krüger
