The 81st Venice International Film Festival is coming to an end. The chairwoman of this year's Main Competition jury, Isabelle Huppert, will announce the title of the film that won the Golden Lion on Saturday evening. Live coverage on tvn24.pl.
The 81st Venice International Film Festival will go down in history mainly due to the very diverse and impressive line-up of films that made it into this year's Main Competition. Among the 21 titles that have a chance to win the Golden Lionincludes new films by, among others, Pedro Almodovar, Halina Reijn, Luca Guadagnina, Bardy Corbet, Todd Phillips, Luis Ortega, Pablo Larrain, the Coulin sisters and Justin Kurzel.
Huppert chairwoman, Holland juror
The Main Competition films were judged by a jury chaired by the legendary Isabelle Huppert. Alongside her on the jury were:
- Agnes Holland – Polish filmmaker, winner of the Special Jury Prize of the Venice Main Competition for “Green Border” (2023); the film won six other independent awards;
- James Gray – American filmmaker, creator of, among others, the famous “Little Odessa” from 1994 (awarded the Silver Lion, and Vanessa Redgrave, who played a supporting role, received the Volpi Cup for Best Supporting Actress);
- Andrew Haigh – English filmmaker, creator of famous titles, including: “A Very Different Weekend” (2011), “45 Years” (2015), “Rely on Me” (2017) and “Good Strangers” (2023) as well as the series “Views”;
- Kleber Mendonca Filho – one of the most outstanding Brazilian filmmakers; he gained international fame with the film “Bacurau”, awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes 2019;
- Abderrahmane Sissako – Malian filmmaker of Mauritanian origin; creator of the famous and award-winning “Waiting for Happiness” (2002) and “Timbuktu” (2015);
- Giuseppe Tornatore – Italian filmmaker; author of the cult classics “Cinema Paradiso” and “The Dream Seller”;
- Julia von Heinz – one of the most interesting German filmmakers of the middle generation; author of, among others, “And Tomorrow the Whole World” (2020);
- Zhang Ziyi – Chinese actress and filmmaker; star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “House of Flying Daggers” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”, among others.
Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in the trailer for “Joker: Folie À Deux”Warner Bros. entertainment inc
A crowd of movie stars
This year's edition of the festival gathered a large crowd of world cinema stars on the Venetian island of Lido. Hollywood represented on the red carpet, among others: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix, Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Adrien Brody.
And all because of the films that have been included in the program of the oldest film festival in the world. Its director Alberto Barbera revealed before the festival's inauguration that the list of titles that make up this year's program was created from almost four thousand entries. For each of the selected films, being included in this group is of great importance.
Reuters recalled last week that in the last three years alone, films premiering in Venice have received a total of 77 nominations. Oscar and 14 Academy Awards.
Main image source: PAP/EPA/ETTORE FERRARI