Venice Film Festival

The awards seasons has officially begun with the Venice International Film Festival unveiling the winners, as the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival continue to unleash and distinguish the haves vs. the havenots.  Paul Thomas Anderson's greatly anticipated Scientology-soaked feature The Master makes huge strides toward eventual Oscar-dom, winning two prizes at Venice, while failing to take the top award.  Michael Mann headed the jury.  the winners:

Golden Lion: Pieta, directed by Kim Ki-duk

Silver Lion (Best Director): Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Special Jury Prize: Paradise: Faith, directed by Ulrich Seidl

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Wonder what the Academy will do with the possibility of both being considering leading actor-- usually one gets downsized to supporting, however the monumental-ness of the performances\performers seems a crime to do so in this case.

Best Actress: Hadas Yaron, Fill the Void

Best Screenplay: Something in the Air- Olivier Assayas

Technical Achievement Award: It Was the Son- Daniele Cipri

Best Young Actor: Fabrizio Falco, It Was the Son and Dormant Beauty

The other main attraction out of Venice was the latest by Terrence Malick, To the Wonder, starring Javier Bardem, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko, a mere fourteen months after The Tree of Life opened in theaters.  The reviews were mixed as many argued that the film was even less accessible and free of dialogue than the former.  The film is still awaiting a distributor, however one can at the very least except that the religiously-scoped love story is scrumptiously filmed...cinematographer\poet Emmanuel Lubezki filmed this one as well.