Venice Festivals by Year: Prizes, Juries, Favorites   Other Fests: Cannes / Chicago Stay tuned for more yearly indexes!  Browse Films by Title / Year / Reviews Nick's Flick Picks Home / Blog / E-Mail		Jurors: John Boorman (president), Wolfgang Becker, Mimmo Calopresti, Scarlett Johansson, Spike Lee, Dušan Makavejev, Helen Mirren, Pietro Scalia, Xu Feng     Golden Lion: Vera Drake, UK, dir. Mike Leigh Grand Jury Prize: The Sea Inside, Spain, dir. Alejandro Amenábar Special Jury Prize: Howl's Moving Castle, Japan, dir. Alejandro Amenábar Best Director: 3-Iron, South Korea, Kim Ki-duk Best Actress: Vera Drake, Imelda Staunton Best Actor: The Sea Inside, Javier Bardem Marcello Mastroianni Award: Working Slowly, Marco Luisi & Tommaso Ramenghi Technical Contribution: Howl's Moving Castle, Studio Ghibli (production company) FIPRESCI Prize: 3-Iron, South Korea, dir. Kim Ki-duk SIGNIS Award: A Long Winter Without Fire, Canada, dir. Greg Zglinski Venice Horizons Award: The Grand Sons, France, dir. Ilan Duran Cohen Future Film Festival Digital Award: Collateral, USA, dir. Michael Mann Competition Films I Have Seen: Ranked in order of preference   My Golden Lion: Birth (USA, dir. Jonathan Glazer) - The thrill and obscenity of passionate attachment, framed by pearly but perverse wealth; Kidman, Savides, Desplat are a heroic trio (favorites review) Palindromes (USA, dir. Todd Solondz) - Solondz finally spits it out: pedophiles suck but so do lots of other ways we over-invest in kids; very precise mood and tension Kings and Queen (France, dir. Arnaud Desplechin) - Desplechin pours melodramatic and farcical elements into stylistic centrifuge, releasing great energy, just short of spinning apart Vera Drake (UK, dir. Mike Leigh) - Defers big, aching plot reveal without seeming jerry-rigged, because communal portrait is evocative and detailed; great acting, lensing (full review) Howl's Moving Castle (Japan, dir. Hayao Miyazaki) - Hard not to equate with the castle: awfully busy and a little rickety, yet it holds together, even enthralls, and is fully its own thing 3-Iron (South Korea, dir. Kim Ki-duk) - Uncanny, prowling POV camera unlinked to any character, yet film feels composited from ideas not fresh enough to linger or fully cohere 5x2 (France, dir. François Ozon) - Ozon's sketchbook cinema continues: another diaphanous idea for a feature, but filming has grace, and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi has more Land of Plenty (USA, dir. Wim Wenders) - Symptomatic of Williams' move into low-budget outsider stories and Wenders' drift into aimless drama. Unmemorable. Vanity Fair (UK/USA, dir. Mira Nair) - Has its moments, but half-assed revisionism makes Becky benignly plucky. Indian overlays could go further. Vague POV. The Sea Inside (Spain, dir. Alejandro Amenábar) - I just couldn't find the movie; flat camera setups and story structure; begs for maudlin reactions while acting as if it's above them Competition Films I'm Curious to See: Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)   The Intruder, France, dir. Claire Denis The World, China, dir. Jia Zhangke Café Lumière, Taiwan, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien The Keys to the House, Italy, dir. Gianni Amelio Stray Dogs, Iran, dir. Marziyeh Meshkini Promised Land, Israel, dir. Amos Gitai A Long Winter Without Fire, Switzerland, dir. Greg Zglinski Low Life, South Korea, dir. Im Kwon-taek Remote Access, Russia, dir. Svetlana Proskurina Sidebar Films:   Full info not readily available about non-competition screenings. If you've got the scoop, let me know! Trackbacks: Permalink Venice Page 2004 Home Blog E-Mail