Samuel Maoz's 'Lebanon' Wins Top Prize At Venice, Todd Solondz Wins Best Screenplay For 'Wartime'

The Venice Film Festival awards are in, but don’t expect for too many names you’ll recognize. Shut out of all awards were films like Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story,” and John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” which would have helped combat some of the negative buzz.

The major American “mainstream” (very relative) film to win an award was Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” which won the Best Screenplay award. We just showed you some footage from it yesterday.

The Golden Lion (the top prize) went to Samuel Maoz’s directorial debut, “Lebanon” which is said to be a hard-hitting Israeli war film. British actor Colin Firth won the best actor award for the film “A Single Man,” which is already gaining a lot of buzz (trailer below). It’s the directorial debut of fashion designer turned filmmaker, Tom Ford.

The Grand Jury Prize did go to a film we’re greatly anticipating which is Fatih Akin’s comedy, “Soul Kitchen” (“The Edge of Heaven” was one of our favorite films from 2008). Reuters has the full report. A simple list of winners below via InContention.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY
Golden Lion: “Lebanon” (Samuel Maoz)
Silver Lion: “Women Without Men” (Shirin Neshat)
Grand Jury Prize: “Soul Kitchen” (Fatih Akin)
Best Actor: Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Best Actress: Ksenia Rappoport, “The Double Hour”
Marcello Mastroianni Prize for Young Performer: Jasmine Trinca, “The Big Dream”
Best Screenplay: Todd Solondz, “Life During Wartime”
Technical Contribution for Set Design: Sylvie Olive, “Mr. Nobody”

OTHER JURIES
Luigi De Laurentiss Lion of the Future: “Engkwentro”
Venice Horizons Documentary: “1428″ (Du Haibin)
Venice Horizons Special Mention: “The Man’s Woman and Other Stories” (Amt Dutta)

“A Single Man” trailer

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