Poor thingsthe fantastic fable of female liberation directed by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos and in the leading role Emma Stonegot up this Saturday with the Golden Lion for the best film of the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

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The second most important prize, the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, went to Evil does not exista song for the protection of nature directed by the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Oscar winning director Drive my car (2022).

Lanthimos has triumphed with an adaptation of a novel by the Scot Alasdair Grey about a woman who is brought back to life by a strange surgeon (Willem Dafoe) and, by starting all over again, can face her life completely freely, without shame or prejudice.

Stone plays a Frankenstein who longs for sex and experiences in a decadent and imaginary Europe at the end of the 19th century.

“Until now, the industry has not been prepared to receive a film like this,” the director noted The favorite (The favorite), since his ‘poor creatures’ are not lacking in explicit sex scenes and all kinds of experiments. Lanthimos is a director with a idiosyncratic style.

It is a visually baroque film, with opulent sets that freely reproduce different capitals of the late 19th century (London, Paris, Athens…), during the mad journey of the protagonists.

Another big winner of the Mostra was the Italian Matteo Garrone, who moved and shocked consciences with his story about sub-Saharan immigration “Io capitano”, for which he Silver Lion for best director.

Furthermore, the young protagonist, the Senegalese Seydou Sarrhas been awarded the Marcello Mastroianni for best emerging actor for his portrayal of the odyssey faced by many of his compatriots, the painful journey through the Sahara, the torture in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

Garrone has given the Senegalese the floor Mamadou Kouassi, whose testimony inspired the film, and he dedicated the prize “to all the people who did not ask to reach Lampedusa” and called for an end to human trafficking and safe corridors for asylum seekers.

Prize for two Spanish filmmakers

The Chilean Pablo Larrain received the award for best screenplay Count, a satire in which he portrays the dictator Augustus Pinochet as a bloodthirsty vampire who denounces the impunity after the Chilean dictatorship.

“No to impunity,” claimed the director of films like Jackie (2016) or Spencer (2021) upon receiving the award, a few days before his country, Chile, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the coup.

The Volpi Cup for best actor went to the American Peter Sarsgaard for his role Memorythe Mexican’s second feature film in English Michel Francowhich explores the possibilities of an idyll between a woman tormented by childhood trauma and a man with the onset of dementia.

Sarsgaard has also used his time on stage to show solidarity with the strike by Hollywood actors and screenwriters and in particular has called on major studios and platforms to limit the use of artificial intelligence.

“This work is based on human connection (…) and all human experiences cannot be transferred to machines”, the interpreter warns. “If we lose that battle, our industry will be the first of many to fall.”

Cailee Spaeny, best actress

Even more surprise was the Volpi Cup for the best actress, which was awarded to the young American Cailee Spaeny, 25, for her role in Priscilla, Sofia Coppola’s film about Priscilla Presleyto whom Spaeny dedicated her award after admitting that she was overwhelmed by the responsibility this work meant for her.

Immigration is also a problem green borderthe movie of Agnieszka Holland which won the Special Jury Prize and which portrays the situation of asylum seekers arriving at the border of Belarus and Poland.

Although the film focuses on the events of 2021, when the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, made a call that attracted thousands of immigrants who ultimately became trapped in a cycle of endless expulsions from one side of the border to the other, the director reminded that what her film portrays “keeps happening.”

In the Horizontes section, the second most important section dedicated to the cinematographic avant-garde, the Spanish-language proposals remained empty, but it turned out Colombian actress Margarita Rosa de Francisco receives an award for Italian film The Paradise.

With this award, the Mostra concludes its 80th edition, marked by the strike of Hollywood actors and screenwriters and by politically motivated proposalsfrom impunity with the Chilean dictatorship to other, more current problems such as immigration in Europe.

Winners List

– Golden Lion for best film: poor creatures by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos

– Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize: Aku wa sonzai shinai (“Evil does not exist”) by the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi

– Silver Lion for best director: Matteo Garrone for Io, captain (Italy)

– Best Actress Award: Cailee Spaeny for Priscilla by Sofia Coppola

– Best Actor Award: Peter Sarsgaard for Memory by the Mexican Michel Franco

– Award for Best Screenplay: Guillermo Calderón and Pablo Larraín for Count by Pablo Larrain

– Special jury prize: Zielona granica (green border) by Polish director Agnieszka Holland

– Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor: Seydou Sarr poor Io, captain by Matteo Garrone