"The Whale" by Darren Aronofsky (USA 2022) won the INTERFILM Award for the Promotion of Interreligious Dialogue at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. The film also received three other prizes from independent juries (Premio Cinema Sarà, Leoncino d'Oro Award, "Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award"). The INTERFILM Jury also highlighted the special quality of "Master Gardener" by Paul Schrader (USA 2022), "Argentina, 1985" by Santiago Mitre (Argentina, USA 2022) and "The Son" by Florian Zeller (Great Britain 2022) at the award ceremony in the Hotel Excelsior.
The Golden Lion of the Festival Jury under Jury President Julianne Moore was awarded to the documentary "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" by Laura Poitras (USA 2022), the Grand Jury Prize to "Saint Omer" by Alice Diop (France 2022). In the Orizzonti section, the Best Film Award went to "Jang-e jahani sevom" (World War III) by Houman Seyedi (Iran 2022), the Best Director Award to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel for "Vera" (Austria 2022). Lifetime Achievement Awards also went to Paul Schrader as director and Catherine Deneuve as actress.
The jury of the Federation of International Film Critics (Fipresci) awarded its prize in the international competition to "Argentina, 1985" and in the Orizzonti section to "Autobiography" by Makbul Mubarak (Indonesia, France, Germany, Poland, Singapore, Philippines, Qatar 2022). "Argentina, 1985" also won an Honourable Mention from the SIGNIS jury, which awarded its prize to "Chiara" by Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy, Belgium 2022).
Since 2011, an INTERFILM jury has awarded a prize in Venice - the INTERFILM Prize for the Promotion of Interreligious Dialogue. The aim of the award, as stated in the regulations, is "to support films that promote understanding, respect, sympathy and peace between people of different origins, histories and faiths, rather than conflict, violence and oppression." The jury considers films from both the International Competition and the Orizzonti section. In 2022, the prize will be awarded for the eleventh time. The festival itself, founded in 1932, is celebrating its 90th anniversary.