Saturday, September 09, 2006

2006 Venice Film Festival Winners Announced

Venice Film Festival wrapped up today and the winner of the Golden Lion was the Chinese film "Sanxia Haoren" (Still Life), a late entry in the festival directed by Jia Zhangke. The film is set in modern day China with the three gorges dam project as the backdrop for the story.

The best actor winner was Ben Affleck for Hollywoodland, which is very surprising to me. I've mentioned a few times this past week about his potential nomination for best supporting actor, but a win at Venice is very surprising. (Last year's winner was David Strathairn in Good Night, and Good Luck).

The winner for Best Actress was less surprising, Helen Mirren has taken the prize for her portrayl of Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears' The Queen.

The Queen's screenwriter Peter Morgan was honored and won the prize for best screenplay.

Helen Mirren was a contender in this years award season all along, and it appears that The Queen is not just a Helen Mirren awards vehicle but could stand it's own as well as a powerful film.

Although Emilio Estevez's Bobby and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men did not win any awards, it was well received...unlike Darren Aronofsky's film the Fountain.

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2 comments:

said...

You may enjoy moi's latest lill' bloggin' about C-BS' "Survivor."

I mean, your blog is entitled
"Starnge CULTure.

Stay on Groovin' Safari,
TOR

Emma said...

Miss Mirren shall take the Oscar, I presume.