The red carpet has been walked upon, the Spritz has been supped and the lion has roared. This year’s Golden Lion selection is yet another surprise choice, the perfectly serviceable but by no means extraordinary Venezuelan-set drama From Afar, which follows the unlikely relationship between a maker of false teeth and a Caracas street tough. Lorenzo Vigas’ film is an assured debut with two fine performances, especially from Alfredo Castro, familiar to world cinema-inclined audiences as Pablo Larraín’s muse in Tony Manero and Post Mortem. Head of the Jury Alfonso Cuarón perhaps shows his generosity to another Latin American filmmaker in awarding the Silver Lion to Pablo Trapero for his Martin Scorsese-inspired true crime thriller The Clan.
The runner-up award in the Grand Jury was awarded to Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson for their superb R-rated stop motion masterpiece Anomalisa, for me the best film of the competition. Actor gongs (Volpi Cups) go to Italian Valeria Golino and Frenchman Fabrice Luchini, both of whom outshined their own films but were well-deserved. Luchini’s film Courted also picked up Best Screenplay and Abraham Attah picked up Best Newcomer for his turn as the child warrior in Cary Fukuyama’s Beasts of No Nation. In the Orizzonti sidebar, Best Debut and Best Director both went to Brady Corbet’s stellar The Childhood of a Leader and the Best Film award to Jake Mahaffy’s Free in Deed.
Golden Lion
From Afar, dir Lorenzo Vigas
Pablo Trapero, The Clan
Anomalisa, dir. Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
Fabrice Luchini, Courted
Valeria Golino, For Your Love
Christian Vincent, Courted
Frenzy, dir. Emin Alper
Free In Deed, dir. Jake Mahaffy
Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader
Neon Bull, dir: Gabriel Mascaro
Dominique Leborne, Tempête
