Yorgos Lanthimos’s Daring Poor Things Wins the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival

September 9, 2023

Photo: Getty Images

It was Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things that claimed the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. On stage at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema, the director honored star Emma Stone, who was absent from the ceremony due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, while collecting his award. The Silver Lion for best director, meanwhile, went to Italy’s Matteo Garrone for Io Capitano.

Earlier in the ceremony, the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize went to Ryusuke Hamaguchi (the Oscar-nominated director of 2021’s Drive My Car) for Evil Does Not Exist, and the Special Jury Prize was awarded to director Agnieszka Holland for The Green Border.

Cailee Spaeny captured the Coppa Volpi for best actress for her performance in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, and the best-actor prize went to Peter Sarsgaard for Michel Franco’s Memory. The Mastroianni Award for best emerging actor, meanwhile, went to a very emotional Seydou Sarr, one of the young stars of Io Capitano.

In the Horizons sidebar, the Gábor Reisz’s Explanation for Everything won best film, and the best director prize went to Mika Gustafson for Paradiset Brinner (Paradise Is Burning). The award for best screenplay went to Italy’s Enrico Maria Artale for El Paraiso, a film enhanced by the splendid Margarita Rosa De Francisco, whose star turn won the award for best female performance. The Special Jury Prize, further, went to Alain Parroni for Una Sterminata Domenica.

Claiming the Lion of the Future—the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize for a debut feature film—was Lee Hong-Chi’s Love Is a Gun. And for her directorial debut, Felicità (Happiness), a luminous and deeply moved Micaela Ramazzotti won the Armani beauty audience award, voted on by festival-goers.