81st Venice Film Festival Winners: Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘The Room Next Door’ Wins Golden Lion, Nicole Kidman Named Best Actress

The 81st Venice Film Festival jury, led by legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert, has awarded Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door the Golden Lion, naming it the Best Film in competition.

The film, based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through,” details the reconnection between old friends Martha, a former war correspondent played by Tilda Swinton, and Ingrid, a successful writer played by Julianne Moore, against the backdrop of life’s final chapter as Ingrid has chosen to end her life after a terminal illness. Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film, Sony Pictures Classics will release it in the U.S. on December 20 in New York and Los Angeles, in select theaters on December 25 and nationwide in January 2025.

The Silver Lion for Best Director went to actor-turned-director Brady Corbet for his 3h35m opus The Brutalist, which many had pegged as a likely Golden Lion winner. A sprawling American saga, The Brutalist, which is currently without U.S. distribution, tells the story of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to the United States in 1947.

Nicole Kidman was the Volpi Cup winner for Best Actress for her turn in Halina Reijn’s sexual dramatic thriller Babygirl, co-starring Harris Dickinson. In the film, Kidman portrays a woman unsatisfied with her husband and ventures out for sexual liberation and freedom. The Volpi Cup to Best Actress Oscar nomination path has been a very strong one, with only one actress – Cailee Spaeny for Priscilla – has missed in over 20 years. Kidman, who was called to stay in Venice, had to leave abruptly before the ceremony upon news of her mother passing. “I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her,” she said in a statement. “She shaped me, she guided me and she made me.”

Best Actor went to Vincent Lindon for The Quiet Son, as a fifty-something single father who works night shifts for the SNCF (the French railway) as a mechanic/engineer and spends his free time with two sons, 22-year-old Fus (Benjamin Voisin) and 20-year-old Louis (Stefan Crepon) as the right of alt-right gangs surround them. 

Maura Delporo’s Vermiglio was awarded the Grand Jury Prize, a Special Jury Prize went to Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April while Murilo Hausera nd Heitor Lorega won Best Screenplay for I’m Still Here. The Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor went to Paul Kircher for And their Children After Them. A handful of high profile films, including Luca Guadagnino’s Queer starring Daniel Craig, went home empty-handed.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 81st Venice Film Festival.

COMPETITION

Golden Lion for Best Film: The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar
Grand Jury Prize: Vermiglio, Maura Delpero
Silver Lion for Best Director: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Special Jury Prize: April, Dea Kulumbegashvili
Best Screenplay: Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega, I’m Still Here
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Babygirl
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, The Quiet Son
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Paul Kircher, And their Children After Them

HORIZONS

Best Film: The New Year That Never Came, Bogdan Mureşanu
Best Director: Sarah Friedland, Familiar Touch
Special Jury Prize: One of Those Days When Hemme Dies, Murat Firatoglu
Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch
Best Actor: Francesco Gheghi, Familia
Best Screenplay: Scandar Copti, Happy Holidays
Best Short Film: Who Loves the Sun, Arshia Shakiba

LION OF THE FUTURE

Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Feature: Familiar Touch, Sarah Friedland

HORIZONS EXTRA

Audience Award: The Witness, Nader Saeivar

VENICE CLASSICS

Best Documentary on Cinema: Chain Reactions, Alexandre O. Philippe
Best Restored Film: Ecce Bombo, Nanni Moretti

VENICE IMMERSIVE

Grand Jury Prize: Ito Meikyu, Boris Labbé
Special Jury Prize: Oto’s Planet, Gwenael François
Achievement Prize: Impulse: Playing With Reality, Barry Gene Murphy, May Abdalla

GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI (announced earlier)

GdA Director’s Award: Manas, Marianna Brennand 
Audience Award: Taxi Monamour, Ciro De Caro
Europa Cinemas Label Award: Alpha, Jan-Willem van Ewijk

CRITICS’ WEEK (announced earlier)

Grand Prize: Don’t Cry, Butterfly, Dương Diệu Linh
Special Mention: No Sleep Till, Alexandra Simpson
Audience Award: Paul & Paulette Take a Bath, Jethro Massey
Verona Film Club Award for Most Innovative Film: Don’t Cry, Butterfly, Dương Diệu Linh
Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Award for Best Technical Contribution: Homegrown, Michael Premo
Best Short Film: Things That My Best Friend Lost, Marta Innocenti
Best Director (Short Film): Nero Argento, Francesco Manzato
Best Technical Contribution (Short Film): At Least I Will Be 8 294 400 Pixel,”Marco Talarico