With the curtain now down, the 82nd Venice Film Festival leaves behind a legacy marked by jury decisions, marathon ovations, and a handful of films destined to be the talk of the season. The Lido hosted major stars and auteur cinema for eleven days, during which the conversation never left the theaters or the shores of the lagoon.
Beyond the glitz of the red carpet, the real news has been the screenings and an awards list that has combined sensitivity with cinematic flair. The competition between Jim Jarmusch 's new film and Kaouther Ben Hania 's striking work has defined this year's festival, with decisions already prompting critical analysis.
Official list of winners
The jury, chaired by Alexander Payne, awarded the Golden Lion to Father Mother Sister Brother , confirming Jarmusch's excellent form and his commitment to intimate, chamber-like storytelling, while the Grand Jury Prize recognized the civic forcefulness of The Voice of Hind.
- Golden Lion for Best Film: Father Mother Sister Brother, by Jim Jarmusch
- Grand Jury Prize: Hind's Voice, by Kaouther Ben Hania
- Silver Lion for Best Director: Benny Safdie, for The Smashing Machine
- Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Xin Zhilei, for The Sun Rises on Us All
- Volpi Cup for best actor: Toni Servillo, for La grazia
- Best screenplay: Valérie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand, for On the job
- Special Jury Prize: Sotto le nuvole, by Gianfranco Rosi
- Marcello Mastroianni Award (Emerging Performer): Luna Wedler, by Silent Friend
- Audience Award: Málaga Street, by Maryam Touzani
The photograph of the awards shows that the major studios and streaming platforms were left without crowns in the main categories, while auteur cinema and personal visions dominated the awards.
The movies that sparked the conversation
In Father Mother Sister Brother , Jarmusch crafts a family triptych with a poetic breath, divided into three chapters that travel from rural New Jersey to Dublin and Paris. With an ensemble cast including names like Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, Tom Waits, and Mayim Bialik , the film unfolds luminous melancholy and dry humor to examine the pulse of everyday life.
Kaouther Ben Hania's "The Voice of Hind" stands out as a compelling work that blends documentary footage and dramatization to examine a real case in Gaza. The director crafts a staging that prioritizes listening and the theatrical approach, seeking to engage the audience without overemphasizing and to uphold the memory of its protagonist.
The Silver Lion for Benny Safdie for The Smashing Machine underscores the interest in the sports biopic as a territory of fissures: Dwayne Johnson 's performance and the focus on wrestler Mark Kerr's addictions add social layers to a story of rise and fall.
In the acting categories, the Volpi Cup for Toni Servillo for *La grazia* and the award for Xin Zhilei for *The Sun Rises on Us All* underscore the importance of multifaceted characters and moral dilemmas in the edition. The visual texture and sound design of several titles embraced an elegant restraint over sensationalism.
Reactions, speeches and the pulse of the Lido
The screening of Ben Hania's film sparked a standing ovation lasting over twenty minutes , turning it into a conversational phenomenon that extended far beyond the awards ceremony. On stage, the director dedicated her award to those who risk their lives on the ground and championed the role of cinema as a cross-border platform for social commentary.
For his part, Jim Jarmusch championed an idea of ​​artistic commitment that doesn't need slogans to be political: empathy, he argued, can become the most useful tool to talk to each other again and rebuild what we have in common.
In strictly cinematic terms, critics and press agreed that it was an edition of a good average level , perhaps less prone to radical surprise but fertile in solid works and well-chiseled looks.
Horizons and other distinctions
The Orizzonti section also produced its own headlines, with Latin American and European presence in a varied list of winners that rewarded both formal risk and thematic density.
- Best Film (Orizzonti): On the Road, by David Pablos
- Best Direction (Orizzonti): Anuparna Roy, for Songs of Forgotten Trees
- Best Female Performance (Orizzonti): Benedetta Porcaroli, for The Kidnapping of Arabella
- Best Male Performance (Orizzonti): Giacomo Covi, for A Year of School
- Best Screenplay (Orizzonti): Ivy, by Ana Cristina Barragán
- Special Jury Prize (Orizzonti): Lost Land, by Akio Fujimoto
- Best Short Film (Orizzonti): Utan Kelly, by Lovisa Sirén
Furthermore, the Luigi de Laurentiis Award for best debut film was awarded to Short Summer, by Nastia Korkia, endorsing a debut voice with its own personality and visual pulse.
Premieres in Spain and famous names that passed through Venice
A good number of titles from the Official and parallel sections will arrive in Spanish cinemas and platforms in the coming months: Father Mother Sister Brother (Avalon), The Voice of Hind Rajab (LAZONA/Caramel Films), The Smashing Machine (Diamond Films) and La grazia (MUBI) are among those already confirmed.
Both inside and outside of competition, distribution has also been secured for After the Hunt (Sony Pictures), Frankenstein (Netflix), The Wizard of the Kremlin (DeAPlaneta), Jay Kelly (Netflix), Bugonia (Universal), Duse and L'Étranger (BTEAM Pictures), in addition to No Other Choice and other titles that round out a diverse harvest.
Completing the Spanish map are The Last Viking (Avalon), Dead Man's Wire (Vértigo Films), Estrany riu (Elastica Films), Un cabo suelto (Sherlock Films), Motor City (Vértice 360) and Calle Málaga (Caramel Films), which anticipate a very busy schedule of premieres after their time at the Mostra.
With awards distributed between veterans and new voices, and with themes of strong social depth coexisting with precise formal proposals, Venice reaffirms its role as a barometer of the season: the first candidates to lead the conversation, the program and the year-end lists have already emerged from the Lido.
