Master director Pedro Almodóvar has just achieved something he has not managed in over 40 years – with the help of Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton

Master director Pedro Almodovar has just achieved something he has

Master director Pedro Almodóvar has two Oscars and millions of admirers to his name, but a milestone has eluded him in his 44-year feature film career. Until yesterday. Almodóvar’s death drama The Room Next Door was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. The director of All About My Mother and Pain and Glory thus won for the first time a major prize at one of the three major festivals Berlinale, Cannes and Venice.

The Room Next Door is Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film. Julianne Moore plays the lead role of a writer who accompanies an old friend and war correspondent (Tilda Swinton) in the last weeks of her life.

Nicole Kidman wins award for best actress for erotic thriller

The award for best director was given to Brady Corbet for his monumental American epic The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody, as an architect, learns about the pitfalls of the American dream. The Italian director Maura Delpero won the Grand Jury Prize for her drama Vermiglio. Vermiglio tells the story of a mountain village whose everyday life is turned upside down by the arrival of two soldiers during the Second World War.

The award for best actress in the competition went to Nicole Kidman, who has an affair with an intern in Babygirl. The award for best actor went to Vincent Lindon, who plays a father who has to watch his son drift into right-wing extremist circles in The Quiet Son.

The winners in the competition of the 81st Venice International Film Festival

Golden Lion for Best Film

Silver Lion, Grand Jury Prize

Silver Lion, Best Director

Volpi Cup, Best Actress

Volpi Cup, Best Actor

Best Screenplay

Special Jury Prize

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor/Actress

The most important facts about the festival in Venice

  • The 81st Venice International Film Festival took place from 28 August to 7 September in the lagoon city.
  • The French actress Isabelle Huppert (Madame Sidonie in Japan) was chairwoman of the jury that decided on the award in the international competition.
  • Sitting alongside Huppert on the jury were directors James Gray (Ad Astra), Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers), Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau), Abderrahmane Sissako (Bamako), Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), actress Zhang Ziyi and German director Julia von Heinz (And Tomorrow the Whole World).
  • The Room Next Door will be released in German cinemas on October 24th.

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