Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother Bags Golden Lion At Venice Film Festival

In a surprise win, Venice Film Festival has awarded the Golden Lion, the top prize, to Jim Jarmusch for Father Mother Sister Brother, a triptych built around three families and uneasy dynamics between parents and their adult children. Each segment is set in a different country. Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps round out the ensemble cast.

Donning his trademark sunglasses, the American director accepted the award from jury president Alexander Payne with an impeccable “Oh shit”. Father Mother Sister Brother marked Jarmusch’s return to the film festival two decades decades after his previous film with Cate Blanchett, Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), played out of competition. “As filmmakers,” he said on stage, “we’re not motivated by competition, but this is something I truly appreciate.” He mentioned his love for Venice — “the city of Casanova, Vivaldi and Terence Hill” — and thanked the jury and audience for responding to “our quiet film.” Interestingly, the Cannes Film Festival had rejected Father Mother Sister Brother, despite most of his earlier films having played there. 

There was sizeable disappointment among international press and audiences, since several of the most well-received films in the competition, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ Emma Stone-starrer Bugonia, went empty-handed. The most notorious snub was Park Chan-wook’s thriller No Other Choice, which wowed everyone across board. None of the Netflix films–Jay Kelly, Frankenstein, A House of Dynamite–won anything. The film that sparked the most conversation even before the festival began, The Voice of Hind Rajab, did scoop up the Grand Jury Prize.

Dedicating her win to the Palestinian Red Crescent and the other “heroes” in the first response teams in Gaza, the Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania said: “Hind’s voice was a cry for rescue the entire world could hear but no one answered. Her voice will continue to echo until accountability and justice is served. Cinema cannot bring her back nor can it erase the atrocity that was committed against her. But cinema can preserve her voice.”

After reminding the audience that “this is not only about memory but urgency. Hind’s mother and little brother are still in Gaza, their lives are still in danger. I urge the leaders of the world to save them,” she read a message from Hind’s mother, who wrote: “There are many children still waiting for help.” Ben Hania quoted Nelson Mandela’s statement that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” and continued in uncompromising form: “This is not just Hind’s story, it is the story of a criminal Israeli regime that acts with impunity… May Hind rest in peace, may the eyes of her killers never sleep, and free Palestine.”

Full list of the winners:

Golden Lion: Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch

Grand Jury Prize: The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania

Special Jury Prize: Below the Clouds by Gianfranco Rosi

Silver Lion: Benny Safdie for The Smashing Machine

Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Xin Zhilei for The Sun Rises on Us All

Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Toni Servillo for La grazia

Best Screenplay: Valérie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand for At Work

Marcello Mastroianni Award: Luna Wedler for Silent Friend

Orizzonti Competition:

Best Film: On the Road by David Pablos

Best Director: Anuparna Roy for Songs of Forgotten Trees

Special Jury Prize: Lost Land by Akio Fujimoto

Best Actress: Benedetta Porcaroli for The Kidnapping of Arabella

Best Actor: Giacomo Covi for A Year of School

Best Screenplay: The Ivy by Ana Cristina Barragan

Best Short Film: Without Kelly by Lovisa Sirén

Venice Spotlight

Audience Award: Calle Málaga by Maryam Touzani

Lion of the Future

 Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film: Short Summer by Nastia Korkia

Venice Classics

Best Documentary on Cinema: Mata Hari by Joe Beshenkovsky and James Smith

Best Restored Film: Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986) by Bahram Beyzai

Venice Immersive

Grand Prize: The Clouds are Two Thousand Meters Up by Singing Chen

Special Jury Prize: Less Than 5GR or Saffron by Négar Motevalymeidanshah

Achievement Prize: A Long Goodbye by Kate Voet and Victor Maes