Venice. The Awards.

In a special ceremony at the Sala Grande, the award-winners of the 62nd Venice International Film Festival were announced, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has won the coveted Leone d'Or. The film about two cowboys in love was always in the running.

George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck is heading home with two awards: David Strathairn, who plays TV journalist Edward R Murrow, was named best actor (Coppa Volpi) and Clooney and Grant Heslov won for best screenplay. The National Syndication of Italian journalists also voted Good Night, and Good Luck best film, and daily tallies had kept the film at the top of the list since its debut early in the festival. The subject of the film - the role of media in investigating the government - is surely resonant at a time when the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi controls most of Italian television.

Giovanna Mezzogiorno won the best actress award for Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell, voted best Italian film by an Italian jury yesterday (Arca Cinema Giovani). A special jury acting award went to Isabelle Huppert, who plays a wife who leaves and returns to her husband the same day in Patrice Chéreau's Gabrielle.

In the Horizons section, the awards went to Aleksey Fedorchenko's Perviye na lune for best documentary and Lech Kowalski's East of Paradise for the best feature.

The Leone D'Argento (Silver Lion) went to Philippe Garrel for Les Amants Reguliers, a story about young revolutionaries in France during 1968. Abel Ferrara's Mary, dealing with the idea that Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples, won a special jury award. This award is probably the one I feel oddest about.

Massimo Andrei's Mater Natura, about transvestites and transgenders, was voted the best film by the audience for International Critic's Week. The "Little Golden Lion" went to Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, a film many thought might be a frontrunner; interestingly, Kim Ki-duk won this same prize last year for 3-Iron.

From the Venice Days section, Xavier Beauvois won the best film award for Le Petit Lieutenant, a crime thriller set in a Parisian police department starring Nathalie Baye as police captain.

Posted by dwhudson at September 10, 2005 12:26 PM