Poitras documentary wins top prize at Venice Film Festival; Blanchett, Farrell take acting honors

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras’s epic documentary about photographer Nan Goldin and her activism against the Sackler family and their art connections has been awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.

Poitras, the American filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour,” thanked the festival for recognizing that “documentary is cinema” at the ceremony Saturday evening in Venice. Neon is expected to release the film in theaters this fall and HBO Documentary Films recently acquired it for a television run.

Runner up went to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer," the narrative debut from the documentarian about a young novelist observing the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.

Her performance as a successful woman in the world of international music whose reputation comes under threat has gotten nearly universal acclaim.

“I’m shocked to get this and thrilled,” Farrell said in a live video message. McDonagh was on site to collect the prize before he got one of his own for screenplay.

Luca Guadagnino won the Silver Lion award for best director for the cannibal romance “Bones and All” starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, who also was recognized for her performance for best young actress.

“I have a speech prepared because I’m nervous,” Russell said. “I’m grateful beyond belief to be standing here. So many of my heroes are in this room.

Russell also thanked Guadagnino.

“He’s been a great friend to me and I love him so dearly,” Russell said.

The jury also gave a special jury prize to “No Bears,” by imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panâhi. The acclaimed director was in July ordered by Iran to serve six-year prison sentence from a decade ago that had never been enforced. The order came as the government seeks to silence criticism amid growing economic turmoil and political pressure.

Julianne Moore led the jury that selected Saturday's winner from a pool of 23 films that included many Oscar hopefuls. The Oscar-winner presided over a jury that included French director Audrey Diwan, whose film “Happening” won the Golden Lion last year, author Kazuo Ishiguro (“Never Let Me Go”), who has been judging from his hotel room after testing positive for COVID-19, and Iranian actor Leila Hatami (“A Separation”). Also on the main jury were Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo (“The Inner Cage”) Argentinian filmmaker Mariano Cohn (“Official Competition”) and Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“The Candidate”).

Premiering in competition at Venice has launched many successful Oscar campaigns in recent years, leading to nominations and even wins. Seven times in the last nine years the best director Oscar has gone to a film that world premiered at the festival, including Chloé Zhao, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñarritu, twice, Guillermo del Toro and Damien Chazelle. It’s also debuted a handful future best picture winners like “Nomadland,” “The Shape of Water” and “Birdman.”

Outside of the festival's acting winners, Venice cemented several films, actors and directors, as strong awards contenders for the season to come. Brendan Fraser moved many to tears for his portrayal of Charlie, a reclusive English teacher who weighs 600 pounds and is attempting to mend things with his estranged, cruel daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.”

If standing ovation timers are any indication of reception, some of the most beloved of the festival were Andrew Domink’s “Blonde,” an evocative, semi fictional account of Marilyn Monroe’s life, starring Ana de Armas, and “The Banshees of Inisherin." “Banshees” got a reported 13-minute standing ovation to “Blonde’s” 14 minutes—nearly double that of most other well-liked films.

Other films made also waves but went home from the awards empty handed, like Netflix’s “Athena,” a pulsating French drama about the murder a young boy that incites an all-out war in the community, led by his other brothers. Another, quite different, French film also charmed audiences and critics: Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” about a 40-year-old childfree woman (Virinie Efira) dating a man (Roschdy Zem) with a young daughter.

Some were more divisive, like Iñárritu’s “Bardo (or False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths),” a nearly three-hour, surrealist epic about a journalist returning his home country, Mexico, for the first time in 20 years. Loosely based on Iñárritu’s experience of finding success in another country, the film was beloved by some and not by others. Noah Baumbach’s Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise” also received mixed reviews.

One major surprise was the generally negative reception for “The Son,” Florian Zeller’s follow-up to his Oscar-winner “The Father,” that stars Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern.

Aside from awards, it was a Venice for the books, with high glamour from Timothée Chalamet, who stunned in a red backless halter neck from Haider Ackermann, and Florence Pugh, looking the part of a movie star in a sheer tulle off the shoulder Valentino that slyly evoked both classic romanticism and playful modernity, and high drama, mostly around Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.” The behind-the-scenes intrigue on Wilde’s film led to some excessive silliness as the world watched the cast’s every move for clues, from where people were seated, to who looked at who during the premiere.

Chris Pine even became an unlikely meme for various shots of him looking zoned out at a press conference. Then came “spit-gate” where onlookers turned into amateur sleuths trying to determine whether or not Harry Styles spit on Pine before the world premiere of the film (he didn’t). As ever, Venice gets people talking.