THB Headline: Biennale'd It!

Official Awards of the 79th Venice Film Festival (contents below…)

What do the winners of this year’s 79th Biennale jury (chaired by Julianne Moore and comprised of Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Audrey Diwan, Leila Hatami, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rodrigo Sorogoyen) mean here in the United States of Oscar?

Almost nothing.

This is not to diminish the choices, but for Venice’s festival to impact the Oscar race, it has to be the start of a ball rolling down hill of consensus. And when the Golden Lion goes to a documentary - All The Beauty And The Bloodshed by Laura Poitras (USA) - it doesn’t even assure the film for an Oscar Best Documentary win.

Cate Blanchett winning Best Actress for TÁR is already a bit of a consensus pick, even if the film is making a lot of people itchy. (I haven’t reviewed the film, which I have seen, because I want to see it again before writing about it in any depth. It is a feast and a fist. I want to measure both more.)

Colin Farrell was already, amazingly, a sentimental favorite going into the season, re-pairing with Brendan Gleeson and Martin McDonagh for The Banshees Of Inisherin. Some will see this award as propulsion. I see it as confirmation. Likewise, Martin McDonagh winning for his screenplay. The only real impact here may be that any idiots… uh, prognosticators, who didn’t see this film as a Best Picture contender and both Farrell and Gleeson as Acting contenders may pull their heads out of the rectums after this. It’s not just that I love the work of McDonagh… it’s that the history has had almost all of his films in serious play.

The admiration of this jury of Bones and All is lovely. Taylor Russell is absolutely on the rise. But Luca Guadagnino ain’t getting a Best Director nomination at the Oscars for this. And Taylor Russell can’t be run in Supporting (she should have been nominated in that category for Waves).

And for that matter, Saint Omer is likely headed to France’s Oscar nomination… but one never knows when it comes to the politics of all of this.

Perhaps the most significant part of these wins is the lack of titles, not the titles named. It’s not deadly not to win. But The Whale, Bardo, White Noise, Blonde, Athena, and The Son would have all liked to have gotten a nod or two. No headline about the length of standing ovations will make up for this. But the campaign really happens here in the United States and much can change from here…

Meanwhile, The Fabelmans arrive in Toronto tonight.

Official Release -

Venezia 79

The VENEZIA 79 Jury, chaired by Julianne Moore and comprised of Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Audrey Diwan, Leila Hatami, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, having viewed all 23 films in competition, has decided as follows:

GOLDEN LION for Best Film to:
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
by Laura Poitras (USA)

SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE to:
SAINT OMER
by Alice Diop (France)

SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:
Luca Guadagnino
for the film BONES AND ALL (USA, Italy)

COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett
in the film TÁR by Todd Field (USA)

COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actor:
Colin Farrell
in the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)

AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Martin McDonagh
for the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:
KHERS NIST (NO BEARS)
by Jafar Panahi (Iran)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD
for Best Young Actor or Actress to:
Taylor Russell
in the film BONES AND ALL by Luca Guadagnino (USA, Italy)