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: Michael Mann (president), Marina Abramović, Laetitia Casta, Peter Chan, Ari Folman, Matteo Garrone, Ursula Meier, Samantha Morton, Pablo Trapero     Golden Lion: Pietà, South Korea, dir. Kim Ki-duk Special Jury Prize: Paradise: Faith, Austria, dir. Ulrich Seidl Best Director: The Master, USA, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson Best Actress: Fill the Void, Hadas Yaron Best Actor: The Master, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix Marcello Mastroianni Award: Dormant Beauty and È stato il figlio, Fabrizio Falco Best Screenplay: Something in the Air, Olivier Assayas Technical Contribution: È stato il figlio, Daniele Ciprì (cinematography) FIPRESCI Prize: The Master, USA, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson SIGNIS Award: To the Wonder, USA, dir. Terrence Malick Venice Horizons Award: Three Sisters, China, dir. Wang Bing Future Film Festival Digital Award: Bad 25, USA, dir. Spike Lee Competition Films I Have Seen: Ranked in order of preference   My Golden Lion: Spring Breakers (USA, dir. Harmony Korine) - Squalid but often stunning; a necrophile's autopsy of "innocent fun." Rare US movie where dialogue barely matters. Something in the Air (France, dir. Olivier Assayas) - Assayas makes great images even in most modest scenes. Tender, smart, but story devices get a little creaky. The Master (USA, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) - Boldface yet elliptical. Adventurously but vexingly disjointed. Profits and suffers from haze surrounding focal figures. Fill the Void (Israel, dir. Rama Burshtein) - Intensity of observation and tone constitutively bound up with stifled flatness. Unsubtle. Tough but memorable sit. Thy Womb (Philippines, dir. Brillante Mendoza) - Mendoza's good at blending vibrancy and modesty. Plot scenes are weakest. A bit too enamored of Aunor's wistful closeups. Paradise: Faith (Austria, dir. Ulrich Seidl) - Both too broadly pitched and too averse to probing its half-cloaked scenario to attain P:Love's nuance and tension To the Wonder (USA, dir. Terrence Malick) - Technical virtuosity hard to resist. Otherwise, tatters. Disheveled self-quotations, never in sync with characters. Passion (USA, dir. Brian De Palma) - Turns out you can be this pulpy and this wan at the same time! Best bits: clothes, score elements, and a revived McAdams. Sidebar Films I Have Seen: Ranked in order of preference   Stories We Tell (Canada, dir. Sarah Polley) - Film and filmmaker alternate between thoughtfulness and preciousness. Two visions of pained paternity are powerful. Competition Films I'm Curious to See: Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)   Lines of Wellington, France/Portugal, dir. Valeria Sarmiento At Any Price, USA, dir. Ramin Bahrani Dormant Beauty, Italy, dir. Marco Bellocchio Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See: Listed alphabetically   Eat Sleep Die, Sweden, dir. Gabriela Pichler Inheritance, France/Israel/Palestine, dir. Hiam Abbass Kinshasa Kids, Belgium/France, dir. Marc-Henri Wajnberg Kiss of the Damned, USA, dir. Xan Cassavetes Three Sisters, China, dir. Wang Bing Wadjda, Saudi Arabia, dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour The Weight, South Korea, dir. Jeon Kyu-hwan Trackbacks: Permalink Venice Page 2012 Home Blog E-Mail