Winners at the 69th Venice Film Festival Announced

Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" Wins, Then Loses the "Golden Lion"

Kim Ki-duk's "Pieta" Wins the Golden Lion

Founded in 1932, the Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world.  The 69th edition just ended... with some controversy.

Apparently, there is a new rule for the festival's film awards.  The film that wins the "Golden Lion," which is the Venice Film Festival's top prize, cannot win other awards.  The jury (with Michael Mann as this year's President of the jury) initially awarded the Golden Lion to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, which focuses on an L. Ron Hubbard-like figure.  The jury had also awarded the film other awards.  In order to give The Master several trophies, the jury had to reconsider the Golden Lion, so they gave it to Pieta, a film by Korean director, Kim Ki-duk.

Official Awards of the 69th Venice Film Festival

• VENEZIA 69

GOLDEN LION for Best Film to PIETA by Kim Ki-duk (Republic of Korea)

SILVER LION for Best Director to THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to Paradies: Glaube by Ulrich Seidl (Austria, Germany, France)

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actor to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in the film THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)

COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress Hadas Yaron in the film LEMALE ET HA’CHALAL by Rama Bursthein (Israel)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best New Young Actor or Actress to Fabrizio Falco in the films BELLA ADDORMENTATA by Marco Bellocchio (Italy) and È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprí (Italy)

AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to Olivier Assayas for the film APRES MAI by Olivier Assayas (France)

AWARD FOR THE BEST TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION (CINEMATOGRAPHY) to Daniele Ciprì for the film È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprì (Italy)


• LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to KÜF (MOLD) by Ali Aydin (Turkey, Germany) VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS’ WEEK as well as a prize of 100,000 USD, donated by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi De Laurentiis to be divided equally between director and producer

• ORIZZONTI ("Horizons" - honors new trends)

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