Venezuelan film wins Golden Lion at Venice Int'l Film Festival

A Venezuelan film won the Golden Lion for Best Film, the highest prize awarded at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival which closed here at the Lido of Venice on Saturday.

Desde Alla (From Afar) by Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas tells the story of Armando, a middle-aged businessman who suffered trauma from his father when he was younger.

Now, he is buying the sexual favors of young men on the streets of Caracas. One day, he meets Elder, a young street hustler with whom he forms a dysfunctional relationship.

Argentinian director Pablo Trapero got the Silver Lion for Best Director for his El Clan, based on a true story, in which in the early 1980s within a typical family in the traditional neighborhood of San Isidro in Argentina, a sinister clan makes its living off kidnapping and murder.

The Grand Jury Prize went to Anomalisa by American directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, a stop-motion animation film shot with puppets.

Italian actress Valeria Golino, in the Italian film Per Amor Vostro by Giuseppe Gaudino, and French actor Fabrice Luchini, in L'Hermine by French director Christian Vincent, took the best actress and best actor awards.

The Orizzonti selection, dedicated to the latest cinema trends, gave its Award for Best Film to Free in Deed by U.S. director Jake Mahaffy. Set in the distinctive world of storefront churches and based on actual events, the film depicts one man's attempts to perform a miracle.

The Orizzonti Award for Best Director went to U.S. director Brady Corbet for his The Childhood of a Leader, inspired by the early childhood events of many of the great dictators of the 20th century, which follows the development of a terrifying ego in a child at the end of World War I.

A total of 55 films were screened this year in the official selection, of which 21 striving for the Golden Lion in the Venezia 72 section, 18 in Orizzonti and 16 out of competition. Endit