Frenchman Vincent Lindon won the best actor award at the 81st Venice Film Festival on Saturday for his role as a father confronted with one of his sons’ drift toward the violent far right in “Playing with Fire.”
“I am extremely moved (…) Thank you to the entire jury!” declared the 65-year-old actor, an essential face of the 7th French art and the cinematic incarnation of an angry man with obvious flaws. “I would like to thank Muriel and Delphine Coulin”, the directors, he added.
Kidman best actress
The Venice Film Festival also awarded its Golden Lion to Spaniard Pedro Almodovar, giving him, at the age of 74, one of the most prestigious prizes of his immense career for his first American film. In “The Room Next Door”, the former enfant terrible of the Movida directs British actress Tilda Swinton and her American colleague Julianne Moore, in a story of assisted suicide.
Australian-American star Nicole Kidman won the award for best actress, turning her glamorous image on its head in “Babygirl,” a new-generation erotic thriller. In her absence, a message from the 57-year-old actress was read on stage: “I learned shortly after arriving in Venice of the death of my mother Janelle Kidman. I am in shock and need to be with my family. This award is for her.”
