‘The Woman Who Left’ wins top prize at Venice Film Festival

A small film out of Argentina, The Distinguished Citizen, collected the best actor prize for Oscar Martinez’s performance as a novelist living in European exile who is invited back to his boorishly rustic hometown to receive a prize for putting the town on the map.

Lav Diaz’s new film, “Ang Babaeng Humayo” (Woman Who Left) won the prestigious Golden Lion award in the Main Competition of the 73rd Venice International Film, a report from Variety magazine website and ABS-CBN official Twitter account said early Sunday.

The 2016 Venice Film Festival has already ended, but the buzz surrounding high profile movies lingers on.

The Grand Jury Prize is a very new distinction and Ford becomes the fourth director to win it.

United States actress Amy Adams meets fans as she arrives on the red carpet for the movie Nocturnal Animals at the Venice Film Festival.

Emma Stone won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival for her role in La La Land.

“Wrote Tsui, “Lav Diaz returns with a new feature which is, unlike his previous outing, simple, solid, self-contained and succinct”, adding that “(the film) should leave Venice with a few prizes before its global trek… The Woman Who Left will compete against Hollywood’s La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, The Light Between Oceans starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander and Arrival starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, among others.

An global panel led by British director Sam Mendes said on September 10 that Konchalovsky won the award for his film Paradise.

Nominally, The Woman Who Left is a reworking of Leo Tolstoy’s God Sees the Truth, But Waits, a short story about a Russian merchant who is arrested and charged with murder while on a business trip and spends 26 years in a Siberian jail before meeting and finally forgiving the real culprit.

In an unexpected turn, Amat Escalante and Andrei Konchalovsky shared the Silver Lion for Best Director.

The awards mark the end of this year’s edition, reckoned by many to be one of the strongest in recent memory.

The Bad Batch, a desert-set cannibal thriller with Suki Waterhouse, Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves, won the jury prize for the 36-year-old British born Ana Lily Amirpour.

Both magazines also raved about Diaz’s creativity. “We had such an incredible time and I will never forget it”, Stone said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. With the demonic pressure on, there is no time to make house calls.

VENICE | It was director Lav Diaz’ art of exploring human drama at length that tempted Charo Santos-Concio back to the screen after almost two decades, the actress-turned-media executive said at the Venice film festival on Friday.