A great victory for women with the Golden Lion going to “Woman Unknown” by director May El-Toukhy , who also took home the Coppa Volpi for its protagonist Mathilde Arcel, the true driving force behind this film set in post-war Denmark.
In Naza, however, the shocking, politically charged documentary featuring the testimonies of the soldiers involved in the extermination in Gaza won a prize, the special jury prize, but it certainly made less noise in the international press.
So this evening the Jury of Venice 83, presided by Maggie Gyllenhaal and composed of Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To .
And what about Italy , which had five films in the running? Nothing. A truly disappointing result considering it hadn't happened in years. In 2022, five films were in competition, Guadagnino's "Bones and All" won the Silver Lion for Best Director; in 2023, six Italian films were in competition, Matteo Garrone won the Silver Lion for Best Director for "Io Capitano"; in 2024, Maura Delpero's "Vermiglio" won the Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize among the five films in competition; and finally, last year, out of five Italian films, Gianfranco Rosi's "Sotto le nuvole" won the Special Jury Prize and Sorrentino's "La Grazia" brought Servillo the Coppa Volpi.
Returning to the list of winners of the 2026 edition, selected by Barbera, the two Silver Lions went, respectively, to "Possible Love" by Lee Chang-dong (South Korea), Grand Jury Prize, and the Best Director Prize to Ilya Khrzhanovsky for the film "DAU" (Germany, France, Sweden). The first is a true masterpiece of class struggle, sex, and power: two married couples from different worlds—one a jobless worker with a wife, and the other a well-established documentary filmmaker and her husband—live together for a week in the director's luxurious home. She is desperate to interview the worker and his unfamiliar world, while her husband is equally curious, but about the wife of the working class. Lev Landau (played by Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis), who contributed to the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb, detonated in 1949. It's something between a monumental opera and a Soviet Truman Show. in —the most predictable of all the pre-release predictions. Playing a slightly crazed CIA agent, carrying the rifle that killed Kennedy, the American actor and film producer immediately won over critics at the Lido. Best Screenplay deservedly went to Stephane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo, and Olivier Gorge for Stéphane Brizé's France, finally, doubled its success after Brizé with the going to for Cédric Kahn's 15/18 (A Place to Heal). The actress plays Lucia, a vibrant young woman in the vibrant and efficient child and adolescent psychiatry department of a public hospital.
