“Many thanks to the festival, which recognizes that documentaries are cinema too,” said Laura Poitrasholding it proudly Golden Lion at the awards ceremony held last Saturday evening in Venice. American Filmmaker Receives Top Mostra Documentary Award “All Beauty and Bloodshed”, continuing the mini-tradition that almost exclusively women should dominate major festivals as well as the Oscars for the past two years. Poitras herself, after the award-winning Citizenfour about Edward Snowden, continued here with a documentary about “activism”, with a film about the story of photographer Nan Goldin and her last long battle against the powerful Sackler family responsible for the opioid crisis. . Alice Diop also works in the field of documentaries and won her second Grand Prix Commission for her fictional debut. “Holy Omer”another story of women’s struggles, this time of a mother who is blamed for the death of her baby.

And if the first two awards were not entirely expected, then the rest, presented at the Saturday ceremony, were more or less expected. First, the one that Cate Blanchett (deservedly) received for her breathtaking work at Todd Field’s TAR, automatically coming out on top in the race for the Oscars. One of the best performances of his career was undoubtedly given by Colin Farrell in the oddly flexible role Martin McDonagh wrote for him in The Banshee of Inisherin.

After all, the latter was one of the best films in the competition this year and, quite rightly, was also awarded for the screenplay – a real McDonough embroidery, something between a characteristic comedy and an ancient tragedy. From there, the Silver Lion for Directing went to Luca Guantanino for Bones and All, perhaps a little unfairly to the incredible work Romain Gavras did in his own Athena. On the other hand, the cannibalistic coming-of-age story of the Italian director will definitely stick with us thanks to its daring and delicious dark humor.

All in all, what we can say is that this year Mostra has continued the path she has blazed in recent years: a blend of Hollywood glamour, and an important social sign that she proudly displays and rewards.