Whether cinema is truly in excellent shape, we’ll find out in the next six months when the competitors from the Venetian lagoon reach the screens of world cinemas. For now, it’s known that the process of determining the winners sparked considerable debate within the jury. Considering that over the past seven years, the festival’s top prize has been awarded five times to films produced in the USA, presenting this season’s Golden Lion to the obvious contender—“The Brutalist” by American Brady Corbet—appeared, to say the least, a controversial decision for the oldest European (and world) film festival…
“The Brutalist” is a 3.5-hour opus, chronicling the journey of a Bauhaus architect (Adrien Brody) who, in the aftermath of the Holocaust tragedy, relocates to the USA, where anenigmatic patron (Guy Pearce) rescues him from destitution and obscurity. Corbet’s wholly original architectural narrative weaves a tapestry both self-contained and dynamic, deftly navigating weighty themes of history, recognition, and modernist aesthetics. Upon receiving the Silver Lion for Best Director, Corbet reflected on his work: “It’s 3.5 hours long and it’s on 70mm. We [modern directors, obviously] have the vision for a better cinema, a better world for my beautiful daughter and each and every one of your beautiful children, irrespective of their fucking passports. They deserve the world without borders, something boundless, something new.”
The festival’s highest honor was bestowed not upon the most audacious project, but rather on the most distinguished director. Surprisingly, it became Pedro Almodóvar’s first major award in a long and illustrious career (discounting the honorary “lion”). His debut full-length English-language film, “The Room Next Door,” stars Tilda Swinton as Martha, a New York Times war correspondent, alongside Julianne Moore as her confidante, the writer Ingrid. Martha has led a man’s life, nearly lost contact with her daughter and is contemplating voluntary euthanasia, for which she acquires a lethal Swiss pill from the dark web. Secluded in anidyllic New England house, she implores Ingrid to stay in the room next door until “it’s all over.” While Almodóvar’s signature visual flair remains evident and the leading actressesmasterfully navigate between the harrowing and the humorous, critics concurred that the director lacked his former zeal, and his first English-language feature came out without the Spanish passion.
There was no shortage of passions in “April” by Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili, which earned the Special Jury Prize. Echoing themes from her 2020 debut “Beginning,” Kulumbegashvili paints a panorama of women’s destinies and aspirations within the patriarchal setting ofrural Georgia. The protagonist, Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili), works as an obstetrician, and the film opens with a raw, ten-minute real-time birth scene. To capture this shocking content, Kulumbegashvili spent a year visiting the hospital as if it were her job, fostering trust with staff and expectant mothers. Despite the film’s measured pace, it builds into a catastrophe of biblical proportions, where the nature’s fury and human anguish are underscored by Matthew Herbert’s minimalist soundtrack. Notably, Herbert recent album “Horse” features the London Contemporary Orchestra performing on instruments crafted from equine bones.
The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to “Vermiglio,” its visual landscape crafted by Mikhail Krichman, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s longtime cinematographer. Krichman’s lens finds ample inspiration in the expanses of an Italian mountain village: the film’s charm is quiet and unhurried, with an overtone of mounting horror. In depicting the World War II era, director Maura Delpero conveyed its catastrophe without ever depicting a single frame of combat.
Full list of Venice Film Festival 2024 winners:
- Golden Lion: “The Room Next Door” (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Silver Lion for Best Director: Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
- Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: ‘”Vermiglio” (Maura Delpero)
- Special Jury Prize: “April” (Déa Kulumbegashvili)
- Best Screenplay: Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, “I’m Still Here”
- Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”
- Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, “The Quiet Son”
- Marcello Mastroianni Best Young Actor Award:Paul Kirscher, “And Their Children After Them”
