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Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl wins Queer Lion

Veteran director Marco Bellocchio’s Blood Of My Blood (Sangue Del Mio Sangue) has won the Fipresci Award at the 72nd Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).

The film is a vampire-themed period drama starring Alba Rohrwacher, who won last year’s Volpi prize for best actress with her performance in Hungry Hearts, as a 17th-century noblewoman who becomes a nun and seduces a young army officer and his twin brother. The film is sold by The Match Factory.

Venice’s ‘Collateral Awards’ - prizes assigned independently by film critics and cultural associations - also saw the Queer Lion Award go to Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as Danish artist Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sexual reassignment surgery.

The film, which receives its North American premiere at Toronto tonight (Sept 12), is a hot contender for the upcoming awards season.

Fipresci AwardBest...

Still drifting with the time machine of Il Cinema Ritrovato, I can profoundly feel the endlessness of the medium. Though this is supposedly a journey through the past, as Henri Langlois points out, it also indicates our very future. In this regard, at least to me, Raoul Walsh is the future and cinephilia is nothing but shaping our future by returning to the rich heritage of the moving images.

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Raoul Walsh’s anti-vengeance Distant Drums (1951), starring Gary Cooper and set in Florida in 1840, is about a journey of professional soldiers and ordinary people through the dangerous Everglades, only to discover at the end that the promised land they are searching for is burnt down to the ground. As one can expect from a Walsh film, they stay on the land and fight, man-to-man. There is no room for self-pity or sentimentalism, and the journey itself becomes a metaphor for self-discovery...

Aleksandr Sokurov's Faust has won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. Now's a good time to catch up with Daniel Kasman's review.

The Jury, headed by Darren Aronofsky, awarded the Silver Lion (Best Director) to Cai Shangjun for People Mountain People Sea.

The Special Jury Prize goes to Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma. A roundup was posted earlier today.

The Osella for Best Screenplay goes to Giorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou for Alps. (Roundup and Daniel Kasman's review.)

The Osella for Best Cinematography: Robbie Ryan for Wuthering Heights. (Roundup.)

Michael Fassbender wins the Volpi Cup (Best Actor) for his performance in Steve McQueens's Shame (roundup), while the Volpi Cup for Best Actress goes to Deanie Ip for her performance in Ann Hui's A Simple Life (roundup and Daniel Kasman's review).

The Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor) goes to Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido for their work in Sion Sono's Himizu.

This year’s Venice Film Festival had, as always, a very strong lineup, but the selection that’s risen above the rest to win the Golden Lion was Faust, the latest work from Russian Ark director Aleksandr Sokurov. Other notable wins include Michael Fassbender obtaining the Coppa Volpi for Shame, as well as Yorgos Lanthimos being honored with an Osella (Best Screenplay) statue for Alps. Shame also took home the Fipresci Award for Best Film.

Jury head Darren Aronofsky said that the slate was “exhilarating and maddening,” as there were “so many worthy films and so few prizes to give.” You can see his point when you look at everything they had to choose from. When your “losers” include Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Wuthering Heights, Carnage, and the aforementioned Alps and Shame, you’ve got your work cut out for you. And knowing that Faust beat out all of those...