‘Nomadland’ Scoops Golden Lion At Venice Film Festival – Full List Of Winners

UPDATE, writethru: Following a successful two weeks that marked the first major international industry event in the pandemic era, the Venice Film Festival drew to a close tonight as Cate Blanchett’s jury handed out its awards. Despite a lack of major Hollywood fare, there was no shortage of well-received movies — one film from a studio, Searchlight’s Nomadland, energized the proceedings just yesterday, garnering strong notices for Chloe Zhao’s direction and Frances McDormand’s lead performance — and ultimately took the Golden Lion for Best Picture.

There were more female filmmakers in competition this year, and the Golden Lion going to Zhao’s Nomadland is a first since Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere in 2010.

Among the rest of the competition, there was a lot of praise for Mona Fastvold’s The World To Come. Vanessa Kirby co-stars in that frontier drama and did double duty with Kornel Mundruczo’s Pieces Of A Woman, again receiving high marks; and winning the Best Actress Volpi Cup tonight for the latter.

The festival itself was roundly praised for pulling together an event against incredible odds. Sanitary protocols appear to have worked — no one has yet been reported ill — while social distancing was very well enforced. Indeed, intrepid festival goers this year may find they were in a way spoiled by the lack of crowds and the ease of being able to guarantee seats at screenings and press conferences via an online reservation system. The only movie that was a tough ticket to obtain was Gia Coppola’s Mainstream in the Horizons section which also handed out prizes tonight.

Here’s the full list of awards announced this evening:

Golden Lion
Nomadland

Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize
Nuevo Orden; dir: Michel Franco

Silver Lion, Best Director
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Wife Of A Spy

Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces Of A Woman

Volpe Cup Best Actor
Pierfrancesco Favino, Padrenostro

Best Screenplay
Chaitanya Tamhane, The Disciple

Special Jury Prize
Dear Comrades, dir: Andrei Konchalovsky

Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Roohollah Zamani, Sun Children

HORIZONS

Best Film
The Wasteland; dir: Ahmad Bahrami

Best Director
Lav Diazn Genus Pan