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: Ang Lee (president), Sergei Bodrov, Sandrine Bonnaire, Liliana Cavani, Joe Dante, Anurag Kashyap, Luciano Ligabue     Golden Lion: Lebanon, Israel, dir. Samuel Maoz Special Jury Prize: Soul Kitchen, Germany/Turkey, dir. Fatih Akin Best Director: Women Without Men, Iran, dir. Shirin Neshat Best Actress: The Double Hour, Kseniya Rappoport Best Actor: A Single Man, Colin Firth Marcello Mastroianni Award: The Big Dream, Jasmine Trinca Best Screenplay: Life During Wartime, Todd Solondz Technical Contribution: Mr. Nobody, Sylvie Olivé (production design) FIPRESCI Prize: Lourdes, Austria, dir. Jessica Hausner SIGNIS Award: Lourdes, Austria, dir. Jessica Hausner Venice Horizons Award: Clash, Philippines, dir. Pepe Diokno Future Film Festival Digital Award: Metropia, Sweden, dir. Tarik Saleh Competition Films I Have Seen: Ranked in order of preference   My Golden Lion White Material (France, dir. Claire Denis) - Agonized and fearless, eerily sympathetic, formally electric, like the last visions of someone being burned alive Lourdes (Austria, dir. Jessica Hausner) - Adds up to less than it could, but fab lensing, exquisite control, smart perfs, welcome sense of humor ("Best Pilgrim"!) Lebanon (Israel, dir. Samuel Maoz) - The clanging panic and suffocation are gripping, but the dramatic structure and photography seem off. Still, strong stuff. (full review) The Road (USA, dir. John Hillcoat) - Close transcript of novel, elevated by Mortensen and production design, though lensing feels flat; resonant moments, fuller take on wife The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans (USA, dir. Werner Herzog) - Strung between inspired dinginess and odd, indulgent flippancy; electric scenes alternate with flat patches of improv and police procedural Women Without Men (Iran, dir. Shirin Neshat) - Mounting problems of structure and technique; daring and ambitious, though, with several strong scenes Life During Wartime (USA, dir. Todd Solondz) - What you'd get if you watched Happiness and thought, 'I like it but I wish it were more pitiless. And uglier.' (full review) A Single Man (USA, dir. Tom Ford) - Obvious, lumpen swipes from other films that embarrass this one; all concepts, no finesse; Hoult grievous; Firth OK but sandbagged by script Sidebar Films I Have Seen: Ranked in order of preference   Valhalla Rising (Denmark, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) - Refn can be an engaging poet of the body in extremis, but his structure is inert and the deadpan hard to decipher. The Informant! (USA, dir. Steven Soderbergh) - Damon inspired. Story too weird not to be true. But Soderbergh keeps us outside the material. Frustrating. Hamlisch! Competition Films I'm Curious to See: Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)   Between Two Worlds, Sri Lanka, dir. Vimukthi Jayasundara Lola, the Philippines, dir. Brillante Mendoza The Double Hour, Italy, dir. Giuseppe Capotondi Around a Small Mountain, France, dir. Jacques Rivette Soul Kitchen, Germany, dir. Fatih Akin Mr. Nobody, Belgium, dir. Jaco van Dormael My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, USA, dir. Werner Herzog Persecution, France, dir. Patrice Chéreau Capitalism: A Love Story, USA, dir. Michael Moore Survival of the Dead, USA, dir. George Romero Baarìa, Italy, dir. Giuseppe Tornatore Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See: Listed alphabetically   Adrift, Vietnam, dir. Chuyîn Thac Bui Clash, Philippines, dir. Pepe Diokno The Hole, USA, dir. Joe Dante The Last Days of Emma Blank, The Netherlands, dir. Alex van Warmerdam Metropoia, Sweden, dir. Tarik Saleh [Rec] 2, Spain, dirs. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza Scheherazade Tell Me a Story, Egypt, dir. Yousry Nasrallah Trackbacks: Permalink Venice Page 2009 Home Blog E-Mail