Cinema. Venice Film Festival: Jim Jarmusch Wins Golden Lion, Valérie Donzelli's Film Wins Award

Jim Jarmusch won his first major award at the ^82nd Venice Film Festival. At a closing ceremony marked by numerous gestures and declarations of solidarity with Gaza, the American director's film Father, Mother, Sister, Brother was surprisingly awarded the Golden Lion.

It's a triptych between New Jersey, Dublin, and Paris, carried by a five-star cast (Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, etc.). Very sober in its staging, this feature film, where silences, gestures, and glances often count more than dialogue, is intended as a tender reflection on family. A sort of "anti-action film," joked its director, 72 years old and a leading figure in independent cinema, who also wrote the screenplay.

Wearing dark glasses and an "Enough" pin, Jim Jarmusch said that "you don't have to talk politics to be political. It can jeopardize empathy and connection between people, which is the first step in solving the problems we have."

The shocking film The Voice of Hind Rajab by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, which tells the story of the ordeal of a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in early 2024 , was awarded the Silver Lion, the second most prestigious award.

Kaouther Ben Hania dedicated the award to the workers of the Palestinian Red Crescent. Hind Rajab's story is "the tragic story of an entire people suffering from genocide inflicted by a criminal Israeli government that acts with impunity," she said, deeply moved.

The film, which received a standing ovation for 23 minutes, deeply moved festivalgoers. Its director relied on real recordings of a five-year-old Palestinian girl's cries for help, which had stirred up deep emotion when they were first released.

Valérie Donzelli's film "A pied d'œuvre" about a photographer who leaves everything to become a writer, won an award on Saturday evening, winning the prize for best screenplay.

"I would like to spare a thought for my Italian grandfather. And to say that art is very important in our lives, that we must cherish it, respect it, and that I take this prize as a promise to have the chance to perhaps make another film," the director thanked during her speech.

In this adaptation of Franck Courtès' autobiography, Bastien Bouillon, revealed in La nuit du 12 and recently in Monsieur Aznavour , is a former successful photographer who gave up a comfortable life to write.

To the despair of his loved ones, despite his loneliness and under pressure from his editor (Virginie Ledoyen), this divorced father will try to remain faithful to his choices by taking on a series of small jobs to make up for his financial insecurity.

This is the director's fourth collaboration with Bastien Bouillon, whom she wanted to offer "a truly big role," after bringing him to the screen in 2011 for a discreet role in La guerre est déclarée . Two years after L'Amour et les forêts , another adaptation of a novel, she "selected everything that could be cinematic" from the book's many "small scenes."