Kosmorama-report from Venezia
There's been a couple of weeks since this year's edition of the Venice Film Festival ended and since we at Kosmorama were well represented down there, we wanted to give you a short report from the festival.
Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica is the oldest film festival in the world, and this year they celebrated its 80th edition. The festival is held on the island of Lido outside Venice, where both the celebrities and "us mortals" arrive on charming boats, and where the cinema halls are located only 100 meters from beautiful beaches. Here, films are shown from morning to night - eleven days straight.
The Film Biennale this time seemed to be a very strong vintage, with films and filmmakers that we can report that to varying degrees ended up fulfilling both expectations and fears, but where this year's award winners actually give quite a good indication of some of the strongest movie cards in the deck.
The Golden Lion itself went to Yorgos Lanthimos and his remarkable latest work Poor Things, in which Emma Stone excels in a visually striking and wildly entertaining film. Furthermore, the two so-called jury prizes went to Ruysuke Hamaguchi's elegant and fabulous Evil Does Not Exist, and veteran director Agnieszka Holland's engaging and powerful story about refugees in The Green Border. Lastly, the two acting awards went to Cailee Spaeney for her sparkling interpretation of the title character in Sofia Coppola's brilliant Priscilla, and Peter Sarsgaard for his heartbreaking interaction with an equally good Jessica Chastain in Michel Franco's Memory.
All of these films are definitely something to catch when they come to a cinema or festival near you. This also applies to a number of other films that premiered on the famous Lido, and just as during the festival this year, there will almost certainly be more films first seen in Venice to be found when the 20th edition of Kosmorama gets underway in March 2024.
