Pedro Almodóvar is slowly gathering up a pride at the Venice Film Festival. Five years after he won a Golden Lion for his lifetime achievement in film at Venice in 2019, he’s earned another one for his latest movie, The Room Next Door— it stars Tilda Swinton as a dying journalist looking to reconnect with her friend Julianne Moore as she faces death. While the movie is his English language for a full-length feature film, in his acceptance speech, Almodóvar says, “The spirit [of the film] is Spanish.” It’ll be his first Golden Lion for a specific movie; he won best screenplay for Women on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 1988.
Babygirl’s Nicole Kidman took home the best actress prize; however she was unable to accept the award in person as her mother had died as she arrived in Venice. “Today I arrived in Venice to learn shortly thereafter that my beautiful, brave mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, has just passed,” Kidman said in a message, read by director Halina Reijn on stage as she accepted the award on her behalf. “I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me, and she made me. I’m beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Helena. The collision of art and life is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”
Below are all the winners of Venice Film Festival 2024:
Winners for in competition:
Golden Lion: The Room Next Door - dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Grand Jury Prize: Vermiglio - dir. Maura Delpero
Silver Lion for Best Director: Brady Corbet for The Brutalist
Special Jury Prize: April - dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili
Best Screenplay: Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for I’m Still Here
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Nicole Kidman in Babygirl
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Vincent Lindon in The Quiet Son
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Paul Kircher in And Their Children After Them
Winners for Horizons:
Best Film: The New Year That Never Came - dir. Bogdan Mureşanu
Best Director: Sarah Friedland for Familiar Touch
Special Jury Prize: One of Those Days When Hemme Dies for Murat Firatoglu
Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant in Familiar Touch
Best Actor: Francesco Gheghi in Familia
Best Screenplay: Scandar Copti in Happy Holidays
Best Short Film: Who Loves the Sun - dir. Arshia Shakiba
Lion of the Future Winner:
Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Feature: Familiar Touch - dir. Sarah Friedland
Horizons Extra Winner:
Audience Award: Shahed (The Witness) - dir. Nader Saeivar
Venice Classics Winner:
Best Documentary on Cinema: Chain Reactions - dir: Alexandre O. Philippe
Best Restored Film: Ecce Bombo - dir. Nanni Moretti