Venice Film Festival awards: Pieta wins best picture, PT Anderson best direction

As widely anticipated, Kim Ki-duk’s drama Pieta was awarded the Golden Lion for best picture at the 69^th Venice Film Festival.

The jury, chaired by Michael Mann and including Marina Abramovic, Laetitia Casta and Matteo Garrone, also awarded the Silver Lion for best direction to American film-maker Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master.

The two leading actors in The Master, Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, won ex-aequo the Coppa Volpi for best actor.

The Coppa Volpi for best actress went to Hadas Yaron for her interpretation of Lemale et Ha’chalal (Fill the Void) by Rama Bursthein.

Fabrizio Falco, starring in two movies in competition Bella Addormentata and E’ Stato il Figlio, received the Marcello Mastroianni award for best new young actor or actress.

Apres Mai by Oliver Assayas claimed best screenplay, whereas Daniele Ciprí won best technical contribution for the cinematography of E’ Stato il Figlio.

The final prize from the main competition, the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Lion of the Future for a debut film, went to Küf (Mold) by Ali Aydin. This prize comes with a $100,000 grant.

The list of remaining awards follows below:

ORIZZONTI competition

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM (full-length films) to SAN ZIMEI by Wang Bing (France, Hong Kong)

SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE (full-length films) to TANGO LIBRE by Frédéric Fonteyne (France, Belgium, Luxembourg)

ORIZZONTI YOUTUBE AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to CHO-DE by Yoo Min-young (South Korea)

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2012-EFA to TITLOI TELOUS by Yorgos Zois (Greece)

GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2012 to Francesco Rosi

JAEGER-LECOULTRE GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER AWARD to Spike Lee

PERSOL AWARD to Michael Cimino

L’ORÉAL PARIS PER IL CINEMA AWARD to Giulia Bevilacqua

Filippo L’Astorina, the Editor