Venezia74: Celebrations on Day 11

The 74th Venice Film Festival came to a close tonight with a starry awards ceremony at which Guillermo del Toro unsurprisingly took the top prize for his superb The Shape of Water. Earlier in the day I spent a couple of hours out in the sunshine and then caught my final film of the festival (see below). Here the winners in the bigger categories and sections, as well as my 10 favourite films of the festival...

Golden Lion: THE SHAPE OF WATER
Grand Jury Prize: FOXTROT
Director: Xavier Legrand (CUSTODY)
Actress: Charlotte Rampling (HANNAH)
Actor: Kamel El Basha (THE INSULT)    
Screenplay: Martin McDonagh (THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI)
Special Jury Prize: SWEET COUNTRY
Mastroianni Award: Charlie Plummer (LEAN ON PETE)
Lion of the Future: Xavier Legrand (CUSTODY)
Glory to the Filmmaker: Stephen Frears
Lifetime Achievement: Jane Fonda and Robert Redford

Horizons
Film: NICO, 1988
Director: Vahid Jalilvand (NO DATE, NO SIGNATURE)
Jury Prize: CANIBA
Actress: Lyna Khoudri (LES BIENHEUREUX)
Actor: Navid Mohammadzadeh (NO DATE, NO SIGNATURE)
Scr: Dominique Welinski and Rene Ballesteros (LOS VERSOS DEL OLVIDO)

Venice Days
People's Choice: LONGING
Director: Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza (CANDELARIA)

Critics' Week
Film: TEAM HURRICANE
Audience Award: TEMPORADA DE CAZA

Queer Lion: MARVIN
Fipresci: EX LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Fipresci - Debut Film: Kim Nguyen (LOS VERSOS DEL OLVIDO)
Fedeora - Film: EYE ON JULIET
Fedeora - Debut Dir: Sara Forestier (M)
Fedeora - Actor: Redouanne Harjane (M)
Doc on Cinema: THE PRINCE AND THE DYBBUK
Mouse d’Oro: MEKTOUB, MY LOVE: CANTO UNO
Leoncino d’Oro: THE LEISURE SEEKER

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RICH'S 10 BEST OF THE FEST

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Lean on Pete
3. M
4. Custody
5. The Third Murder
6. Suburbicon
7. The Shape of Water
8. Love and Bullets
9. Nico, 1988
10. Brawl in Cell Block 99

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M
dir-scr Sara Forestier; with Sara Forestier, Redouanne Harjane 17/Fr ****.
An unusually involving and offbeat romance, this is a remarkably assured writing-directing debut for actress Sara Forestier. With a clever premise, the film brings two marginalised people together, forcing them to address personal issues they would rather hide from the world. Forestier packs the film with little unexpected details about these characters, both of whom are so beautifully played that we can't help but root for them as we vividly identify with their longing and frustration as well as their joy.

I'll be straight back into screenings in London starting on Monday, and this coming week includes Borg vs McEnroe, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, The Glass Castle and Brakes.

Venezia74: Hit the road on Day 5

The weather returned to sunshine today, so I took a break in the middle of the day and went for a long walk on the beach. I have another gap tomorrow, and hope to cross the lagoon to Venice for some museum visiting. In the meantime I had three films today. Well, I was supposed to have four, but I did something I never do: I walked out of the French documentary Caniba. After 40 minutes, it was still insufferably pretentious and incoherent, and I remembered that I didn't need to review it anywhere, so I followed the steady flow of walk-outs and had some ice cream instead. These are the ones I watched all the way through...

The Leisure Seeker
dir Paolo Virzi; with Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland 17/US ***.
There's an askance loopiness about this film that blurs the lines between a lively road comedy and a darker exploration of mortality. It helps that it stars the effortlessly offbeat Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, who add layers of edgy subtext to their broad characters and on-the-nose dialog. As it travels down America's East Coast, the film tries to pack in a lot of nostalgia and a whiff of politics, but it's the more internalised moments that are most effective.

Victoria & Abdul
dir Stephen Frears; with Judi Dench, Ali Fazal 17/UK ***
This may be a crowd-pleasing film, but it never seems like director Stephen Frears can make up his mind whether he's making a frightfully British comedy or a historical drama about the final 15 years of Queen Victoria's reign. So it ends up as an awkward mix of the two that feels neither funny nor historical. Thankfully it's anchored by another hugely engaging performance by Judi Dench, who keeps the audience smiling even when the plausibility wobbles.

Team Hurricane
dir-scr Annika Berg; with Zara Munch Bjarnum, Ida Glitre 17/Den ***.
A group of eight 15-year-old girls bare their souls in this colourful Danish documentary, which feels like they made it as a school project. Or perhaps it's a public service programme made to feel down with the kids. It's busy and bursting with lively touches for a generation that thinks anything that isn't "Insta-worthy" is useless. But they also discuss on serious issues like depression, sexuality, body image and eating disorder, all from the vibrant perspective of a teen girl.

Tomorrow: Francis McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Koreeda's The Third Murder and the Hollywood doc My Generation...