And So It Begins

After a long break of personal matters and unforgivable laziness I've returned-- and what do you know it-- awards season is right, as we speak, getting started...say it isn't so, it's only September!! But festival season is in full swing-- Venice and Telluride have already had their say, and Toronto is currently going on. From all the online sources thusly, I hear Jason Reitman's Up in the Air starring George Clooney is a definite hit, as is The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, while Creation, the Charles Darwin biopic starring real-life married couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly is a miss, and The Road is mixed...

Anyway the real big news is the announcement of the winners of this years Venice Film Festival, and drum roll...

Golden Lion for Best Film: Lebanon (Israel, France, Germany)

Silver Lion for Best Director: Shirin Neshat, Women Without Men (Germany, Austria, France)

Special Jury Prize: Soul Kitchen (Germany)

Best Actor: Colin Firth, A Single Man (USA)

Best Actress: Ksenia Rappaport, La Doppia Ora (Italy)

Best Screeplay: Life During Wartime- Todd Solondz (USA)

Queer Golden Lion: A Single Man (USA)-- special award given to Tom Ford


So the big news-- not much, with the exception of Colin Firth winning for fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man, also starring Julianne Moore, Lee Pace and Matthew Goode about a gay man coming to odds with the loss of a lover. It's the first significant prize for an actor that could potentially be an Oscar contender, that is granted the film gets US distribution in time for a 2009 release (sucks to be a small time film in a recession-ville America.) Also goods news for longtime troublemaker Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse), but doubt Oscar will ever be brave enough for him.