In Darren Aronofsky's The Whale a father is confined in his body, in his home and in his life. Seeking liberation, he is visited by characters who while disgusted by his physical appearance offer him different ways of surviving. The film powerfully portrays the fragility of human relationships and the possibility of forgiveness and salvation.
79th International Film Festival Venice
Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica
31.08.2022 to 10.09.2022
Venice
The INTERFILM Jury in Venice 2022 with Nicoletta De Vecchi of the Italian distribution company I Wonder Pictures (3rd from left) who took the INTERFILM Award for Darren Aronofsky
"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.
Awards of the INTERFILM Jury
More about the festival
Even before this year’s cinematic line-up was revealed, it was clear that the 79th Venice International Film Festival was going to be special given the news that auteur Paul Schrader would receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Schrader is perhaps best known for his psychological portrayals of troubled and lonely people in his own films and screenplays. Alina Birzache, member of the INTERFILM Jury in Venice 2022, reports about the festival.
The awards ceremony of the 79th Venice Festival ended with a surprise. The Golden Lion went to the documentary "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" by Laura Poitras.
What was striking this year in Venice was the abundance of family stories telling of separated and remarried couples, of the relationship between parents and children, of tragic strokes of fate, of loss and grief.
Political films are not an easy genre. They run the risk of falling into clichés, dividing their characters into heroes and villains, and reducing complex political contexts to simple formulas.
Peter Paul Huth reports on the films of Luca Guadagnino, Frederic Wiseman and Paul Schrader
