By LINA LORNA
At the 68th Venice Film Festival came out an interesting mix bag of winners: Golden Lion for Best Film, Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia), Silver Lion for Best Director, Shangjun CAI for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong), Special Jury Prize Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy), Coppa Volpi for Best Actor Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom), see video (featured below) for Fassbender's acceptance speech.
At the 68th Venice Film Festival came out an interesting mix bag of winners: Golden Lion for Best Film, Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia), Silver Lion for Best Director, Shangjun CAI for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong), Special Jury Prize Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy), Coppa Volpi for Best Actor Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom), see video (featured below) for Fassbender's acceptance speech.
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong), Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress, Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono (Japan), Osella for the Best Cinematography, Robbie Ryan for the film Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom), Osella for Best Screenplay, Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for the film Alpis (Alps) by Yorgos Lanthimos (Grecia).
In another exciting yet compelling note: above is the trailer to Madonna's debut film at the Venice Film Festival, 2011 as a director. The movie is called W.E. — and surprisingly, in Madonna's first attempt to write a screenplay (with the help of Alec Keshishian) — the story of W.E. is complex and the editing quite engrossing.
The pop-icon has admittedly divulged her attraction to this true story of Wallis Simpson — the American socialite who married her third husband the Duke of Windsor, Prince Edward (who had to relinquish his title as King Edward VIII, to marry her) — seeing a parallel between perhaps living a controversial life publicly and the phenomenon of being a celebrity as she does.
Madonna also acknowledges the importance of representing a woman's perspective as an aspiring director — as such few women in the film industry get to perform and enjoy having a directive role in the world of cinema.
