VENICE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS

The Venice Film Festival’s competition jury, headed by famed Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, has surprisingly handed out its highest award, the Golden Lion, to a documentary, Sacro GRA, directed by Gianfranco Rosi. The award appeared to surprise Rosi as much as it surprised film critics covering the festival. “I would never, ever have believed a documentary would win [the] Venice film festival,” Rosi said. The film beat out 19 other films selected to compete for the Golden Lion this year. The Silver Lion (for best director) went to Greece’s Alexandros Avranas for his Miss Violence, which also won its star, Themis Panou, the Coppa Volpi award for best actor. The Coppa Volpi award for best actress went to 82-year-old Italian actress Elena Cotta for her performance in Via Castellana Bandiera.