Finally recognized at the age of 74 and after more than twenty feature films, Pedro Almodovar was awarded the Golden Lion for The Room Next Door on Saturday, September 7. The decision was made by the Venice Film Festival jury, chaired by Isabelle Huppert.

Shot for the first time in English and featuring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, this drama explores the reunion of two friends – one a novelist, the other a war reporter – set against the backdrop of illness. In a poignant twist, Tilda Swinton’s character, afflicted with incurable cancer, chooses to orchestrate her death by seeking the right pill on the dark web.

The film echoes the twilight themes previously explored by the Spanish filmmaker, particularly in Pain and Glory (2019). Despite the serious subject matter, the actresses manage to infuse the narrative with a tender, never-morbid tone, occasionally heightened by a touch of drollery. Nevertheless, the film maintains a classic and polished aesthetic that can sometimes create a sense of distance – such as in the somewhat implausible flashback depicting the reporter’s fieldwork in Iraq.

The Silver Lion, Grand Prix du Jury, was awarded to another pastoral drama, Vermiglio, directed by Italian filmmaker Maura Delpero. Set during the Second World War, the film explores the daily life of a large family in a mountain village in Italy who take in two deserters with varying degrees of warmth. The camera closely examines the actions of the siblings, particularly the sisters, whose quest for independence is often thwarted. Delicate in its portrayal of the sexual emotions and associated guilt of the two eldest sisters, Vermiglio is somewhat constrained by its own thematic focus on emancipation, with its intentions becoming apparent from the very first scenes.

The award for Best Director went to American director/actor Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, a two-part epic (spanning over three hours) that chronicles the life of architect Laszlo Toh. A Hungarian-born Jew and concentration camp survivor, Toh seeks to rebuild his life in New York. The film traces the highs and lows of his American dream, which briefly resembles a fairy tale when a wealthy landowner takes him and his family under his wing and assigns him a major construction project. However, the narrative’s descent is marked by a poignant bitterness. While the epic is visually stunning, its grandiloquent aesthetics and Adrien Brody’s exuberant performance can become overwhelming.

Nicole Kidman and Vincent Lindon, Best Acting awards

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