Venice Film Festival Winners

Golden Lion: Faust (Russia), directed by Aleksandr Sokurov (he also directed the art house one-shot hit Russian Ark)
Silver Lion for Best Director: Shangjun Cai, Mountain People Sea (China)
Special Jury Prize: Terraferma (Italy), directed by Emanuele Crialese
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, Shame (UK)
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Deannie Yip, A Simple Life (China, Hong Kong)
Osella Award for Best Screenplay: Alps (Greece)- Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou
Osella Award for Best Technical Contribution: Robbie Ryan (cinematography), Wuthering Heights (UK)
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Acting Newcomer: Shota Sometani, Himizu (Japan)

The big news that Michael Fassbender, who pulled double duty at this years Venice Film Festival with Shame (directed by Steve McQueen, who also helmed Fassbender's breakthrough Hunger in 2008) as well as co-starring in David Croenberg's A Dangerous Method won top honors for his portrait of a sex addict.  The film itself, based on early reviews, seems like unlikely catnip for the Academy, but it certainly ups the credibility for the up and coming, and seemingly ubiquitous actor, he's already scaled the heights of such iconic roles of Magneto and Mr. Rochester, and that's this year alone.  The film was recently snapped up by Fox Searchlight, which will be interesting for a film that most seem to think will get slapped with an NC-17.

The other get was Alps, which was directed and co-authored by the provocateur of last year's best foreign language film nominee Dogtooth, as well as the cinematography mention for the umpteenth rendition of Wuthering Heights, directed by Andrea Arnold, whose 2009 feature Fish Tank (which co-starred Fassbender) was a beaut.