As the world slowly continues to re-open, our favorite film festivals are finally making an in-person comeback. Among these is the 78th Annual Venice Film Festival, which came to a close on Saturday night after running 21 films ranging anywhere from a much-needed collective sigh of relief to absolutely, morally devastating and everywhere in between.
The festival competition opened with
Parallel Mothers
, a welcome addition to Pedro Almodóvar’s sensitive dissections of motherhood with a practically mandatory performance from his muse Penélope Cruz, who went on to take home the Volpi Cup for Best Actress.
John Arcilla’s haunting performance as a conflicted journalist in the Philippine crime thriller
On the Job: The Missing 8
earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. The film began as a six-part miniseries created for HBO Asia Originals and has since been partially released in an extended-cut miniseries format for HBO Asia, with the final three episodes coming out Sundays through Oct. 3, 2021.
The Special Jury Prize was awarded to director Michelangelo Frammartino’s
Il Buco
, which meditates on the mystical depth of the Bifurto Abyss in 1960’s Italy, inspired by Frammartino’s own enigmatic experience in 2007.
The Hand of God
, a Netflix original, earned Filippo Scotti the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress, as well as the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. In between the stunning scenery and poignant revelations, director Paoli Sorrentino finds the time to sincerely welcome us into his world of awkward, vibrant teen life. It will be available on Netflix starting Dec. 15, 2021.
Maggie Gyllenhaal earned Best Screenplay for her work in
The Lost Daughter
. Though her filmography spans from raunchy rom-coms to blockbuster superhero love interests, nothing is quite like this book-to-movie adaptation, in which Olivia Coleman plays a dangerously disoriented woman obsessed with a young mother and daughter she observes on a seaside beach vacation.
The Power Of The Dog
’s Jane Campion won the Silver Lion for Best Director. In Campion’s film, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a taunting rancher that yearns for love at the cost of his rapidly deteriorating relationship with his brother.
Happening
, directed by Audrey Diwan, was awarded the Golden Lion — the highest prestige offered by the Venice Film Festival. The film follows a young, pregnant female student’s struggle with shame and pain in her pursuit of an abortion. Diwan follows in the footsteps of last year’s Golden Lion winner Chloé Zhao as two of only six women to ever have received the award and was selected largely in part by Zhao and jury-header South Korean director Bong Joon Ho to send a clear pro-choice, feminist message across the film industry.
Though they may not have received the same accolades, there are honorable mentions galore in the rest of the 2021 lineup. First and foremost,
Spencer
. Though Pablo Larraín ultimately went home empty-handed, his film certainly left viewers with a renewed respect for Princess Diana’s quiet, simmering resilience in a way that builds on — and yet slyly subverts — Emma Corrin’s take on the People’s Princess in
The Crown
’s fourth season. Kristen Stewart’s performance was without a doubt the perfect appetizer to satiate us until Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal in the fifth season of
The Crown
.
The second film that comes to mind is Ana Lily Amirpour’s
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
. The film stars resident Office sweetheart Craig Robertson alongside Zac Efron, Kate Hudson and the unforgettable Burning phenom Jeon Jong-Seo making herself oh-so-comfortable in the genre of stylish, existential horror.
But, of course, we cannot forget to commend the other films in the bracket, including but not limited to
Sundown
with Tim Roth, The
Card Counter
with Tiffany Haddish and
International Competition
for an extra serving of Penélope Cruz with a side of Antonio Banderas.
Congratulations to all of the amazing cast, crew, directors and artists that contributed to the Venice Film Festival’s spectacular 2021 return. Most of all, thank you all for the gift that you have given to the viewers and jury of Venice: the joy of walking into a dark theater, sitting down, getting comfortable and watching a good movie.