Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language movie, “The Room Next Door”, which tackles the hefty themes of euthanasia and climate change, won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday (September 7).
Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film received an 18-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Venice earlier in the week — one of the longest in recent memory.
Now aged 74, Almodovar has decided to try his hand at English, telling reporters that it was like science fiction for him.
While “The Room Next Door” was widely tipped to win, the runner-up Silver Lion award was a surprise, going to Italian director Maura Delpero, for her slow-moving drama set in the Italian Alps during World War Two — “Vermiglio”.
Australia’s Nicole Kidman won the best actress award for her role in the erotic “Babygirl”, where she plays a hard-nosed New York CEO, who jeopardises both her career and her family by having a toxic affair with a young, manipulative intern.
France’s Vincent Lindon was named best actor for “The Quiet Son”, a French-language drama about a family torn apart by far-right radicalism.
The best director award went to Brady Corbet for his 3-1/2 hour-long movie, The Brutalist, the epic tale of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor played by Adrien Brody, who seeks to rebuild his life in the United States.
The prize for best screenplay went to Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for “I’m Still Here”, a film about Brazil’s military dictatorship, while the special jury award went to the abortion drama “April”, by Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili.
The festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars, with eight of the past 12 best director awards at the Oscars going to films that debuted at Venice.
The Venice jury this year was headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert.