Alfonso Cuaron is the Lion king…
The 56-year-old Mexican filmmaker and Oscar winner’s black-and-white Mexican drama Roma has won the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice Film Festival.
It’s the first movie from Netflix to take such an honor at a major festival, and the second movie in a row from a Mexican filmmaker to win here. Last year, Guillermo del Toro’s Golden Lion winner, The Shape of Water, went all the way to a Best Picture Oscar.
Del Toro was jury president this year and in announcing his dear friend as the winner, joked, “Now, let me see if I can pronounce the name correctly.” As it did last year with The Shape of Water, the press room erupted in applause when Roma won.
An ode to Cuaron’s Mexico City childhood, Roma, co-produced by Participant Media and Cuarón’s Esperanto Filmoj, has been embraced here on the Lido and its momentum accelerated when it hit Telluride.
Cuaron said the award and the Venice festival are “incredibly meaningful to me.” He previously opened the festivities in 2013 with Gravity and was jury president two years ago. He also noted the serendipity of today being the birthday of the woman upon whom Roma is based. At the post-awards press conference, Cuaron was asked if it was more meaningful to him that Roma marks Netflix’s first big win at a major festival, or if he was prouder of the movie on a personal level. He quipped of the intensely personal film, “Do you really need an answer to that?”
Del Toro noted the decision to award Roma was “entirely unanimous by the entire jury. So, 9-0.”
Netflix is doing an awards-qualifying theatrical run for the movie that Cuaron wrote, directed, produced and shot, and which is now firmly on the path.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
VENICE 75
Golden Lion
Roma, dir: Alfonso Cuaron
Grand Jury Prize
The Favourite, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Silver Lion, Best Director
Jacques Audiard, The Sisters Brothers
Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Volpi Cup, Best Actor
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Best Screenplay
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
Special Jury Prize
The Nightingale, dir: Jennifer Kent
Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Baykali Ganambarr, The Nightingale
HORIZONS
Best Film
Manta Ray, dir: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Best Director
Ozen (The River), dir: Emir Baigazin
Special Jury Prize
Anons (The Announcement), dir: Mahmut Fazil Coskun
Best Actress
Natalya Kudryashova, The Man Who Surprised Everyone
Best Actor
Kais Nasif, Tel Aviv On Fire
Best Screenplay
Pema Tseden, Jinpa
Best Short Film
Kado, dir: Aditya Ahmad
Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
The Day I Lost My Shadow, dir: Soudade Kaadan
VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY
Best VR
Spheres: Chorus Of The Cosmos, dir: Eliza McNitt
Best VR Experience
Buddy VR, dir: Chuck Chae
Best VR Story
L’Ile Des Morts, dir: Benjamin Nuel
VENICE CLASSICS
Best Documentary on Cinema
The Great Buster: A Celebration, dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Best Restoration
La Notte Di San Lorenzo, dirs: Paolo Vittorio Taviani