As the first of the major film festivals following the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the 77th Venice Film Festival, the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, was held entirely in the cinemas on the Lido and in other venues. The festival had initiated a series of measures to minimise the risk of infection, including the wearing of masks even during screenings and in the open spaces around the festival centre. Nevertheless, INTERFILM had waived its accreditation of the INTERFILM jury for the Award for the Promotion of Interreligious Dialogue this year, also because the concrete situation on location was not even foreseeable a few months ago.
The Golden Lion was awarded to the American production "Nomadland" by Chloé Zhao. The Grand Prize of the Jury went to "Nuevo orden" (New Order) by Michel Franco from Mexico, the Silver Lion for Best Direction to Kiyoshi Kurosawa for "Spy no tsuma" (Wife of a Spy). The Fipresci Jury awarded their prize in the international competition to "The Disciple" by Chaitanya Tamhane (India) and in the Orizzonti section to the Iranian film "Dashte kamoush" (The Wasteland) by Ahmad Bahrami, which also won the Prize of the official Orizzonti Jury chaired by Claire Denis.
INTERFILM member Peter-Paul Huth reports from the festival (please switch to the German version).
Link: Festival website