Two fine prizes for French cinema at the closing night of the 76th Venice Film Festival , selected by a jury led by Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel. Ariane Ascaride was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Gloria Mundi, and Roman Polanski received the Grand Jury Prize for An Officer and a Spy.
The Volpi Cup for Best Actress in Gloria Mundi is an international accolade for Ariane Ascaride, twenty years exactly after she received the César for Marius et Jeannette, also by Robert Guédiguian. As for Roman Polanski, the outcry that had surrounded the screening of An Officer and a Spy did not affect the official jury, which awarded him the Grand Jury Prize, being the second highest accolade after the Golden Lion. An Officer and a Spy also took home the FIPRESCI Prize.
Other French films also won awards, notably Back Home, the debut feature of Jessica Palud (who drew attention with her short Marlon, winner of the UniFrance Grand Prize at the Short Film Awards 2017), who took away the Best Screenplay in the Horizons (Orizzonti) Competition, an award that the director shared with co-screenwriters Diastème and Philippe Lioret.
Minority French productions also collected prizes: Sami Bouajila was awarded Best Actor for his performance in A Son (13 Prods and Dolce Vita Films), which also played in the Horizons Competition.
Lastly, we should draw attention to the French-Lebanese co-production All This Victory by Ahmad Ghossein (MPM Film), which won three prizes at International Critics' Week: the Grand Prize, Audience Award, and the Mario Serandrei Award for Best Technical Contribution.
Official Selection Awards
- Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Ariane Ascaride for Gloria Mundi by Robert Guédiguian
- Grand Jury Prize: An Officer and a Spy by Roman Polanski
- Silver Lion for Best Director: Roy Andersson for About Endlessness (minority French production)
- Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Luca Marinelli for Martin Eden by Pietro Marcello (minority French production)
- Horizons Competition - Best Screenplay: Jessica Palud, Philippe Lioret, Diastème for Back Home by Jessica Palud
- Horizons Competition - Best Actress: Marta Nieto for Madre by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (minority French production)
- Horizons Competition - Best Actor: Sami Bouajila for A Son by Mehdi M. Barsaoui (minority French production)
Venice Days Awards
- GdA Director's Award : The Weeping Woman, de Jayro Bustamante
- BNL Award Audience : Arab Blues, de Manele Labidi
- Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Feature: You Will Die at 20 by Amjad Abu Alala (minority French production)
