Golden Lion Explained

Golden Lion
Presenter:Venice Film Festival
Location:Venice
Country:Italy
Year:1949
Holder:Poor Things (2023)

The Golden Lion (Italian: Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes.[1] In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.

The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark (which was one of the best known symbols of the ancient Republic of Venice).[2] In 1954, the prize was permanently named Golden Lion.

History

The prize awarded as the Golden Lion was in 1949. Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to the Biennale's official website, this hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being awarded to the radically experimental Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos; the website says that the awards "still had a statute dating back to the fascist era and could not side-step the general political climate. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past".[3] Fourteen French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than that of any other nation. However, there is considerable geographical diversity in the winners. Eight American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well as Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain was the first winning US film not to tie), Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, Todd Phillips, Chloé Zhao, and Laura Poitras.

Although prior to 1980, only three of 21 winners were of non-European origin, since the 1980s, the Golden Lion has been presented to a number of Asian filmmakers, particularly in comparison to the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, which has only been awarded to five Asian filmmakers since 1980. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has been awarded to ten Asians during the same time period, with two of these filmmakers winning it twice. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years during the 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film. Zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 include Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Trần Anh Hùng, Takeshi Kitano, Kim Ki-duk, Jafar Panahi, Mira Nair, and Lav Diaz. Russian filmmakers have also won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of the USSR.

Still, to date 33 of the 54 winners were European men (including Soviet/Russian winners). Since 1949, only seven women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing: Margarethe von Trotta, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola, Chloé Zhao, Audrey Diwan, and Laura Poitras (though in 1938, German director Leni Riefenstahl won the Festival when its highest award was the Coppa Mussolini).

In 2019, Joker became the first movie based on original comic book characters to win the prize.[4]

Controversies

From 1934 until 1942, the highest award of the festival was the Coppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film. Even though other awards were attributed to Nazi propaganda films, such as Jud Süß (Suss, the Jew), an Antisemitic production made at the behest of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, won the festival's Golden Crow[5] [6] award in 1940.[7] [8] [9]

Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia

After the end of the WWII, during the reestablishment of the festival, The Southerner, directed by Jean Renoir, won the main prize at the 1946 edition. During 1947 and 1948 the equivalent prize for the Golden Lion was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded to Karel Steklý's The Strike in 1947 and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet in 1948.

Golden Lion

The following films received the Golden Lions or the major awards of the Venice Film Festival:[10]

YearEnglish TitleOriginal TitleDirector(s)Production Country
1949–1953: Awarded as "Golden Lion of Saint Mark"
1949
France
1950s
1950
France
1951
Japan
1952
France
1953
No award given, the jury was unable to decide the winner, the prize was declared void.[11] [12]
1954–present: Awarded as "Golden Lion"
1954
United Kingdom
1955
Denmark
1956
No award given. There was a tie between The Burmese Harp (ビルマの竪琴) by Kon Ichikawa (Japan) and Calle Mayor by Juan Antonio Bardem (Spain) and the international jury was unable to decide the winner, the prize was declared void.[13]
1957
অপরাজিতIndia
1958
Japan
1959
France, Italy
1960s
1960
France
1961
1962
Italy
Soviet Union
1963
Italy
1964
1965
1966
Algeria, Italy
1967
France
1968
West Germany
1969
No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive.[14]
1970s
1970
No award given, these editions of the festival were not competitive.[15]
1971
1972
1973 No award given, the festival was not organized this year.[16]
1974
1975
1976
No award given, the festival was not organized during these years. Even though a cinema section within the Biennale was organized with "proposals for new films", tributes, retrospectives, conventions, and some screenings.
1977 No award given, the festival was not organized this year. Even though an event integrated into the Biennale project on "cultural dissent" focused on cinema in Eastern Europe took place.
1978 No award given, the festival was not organized this year.
1979
No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive.[17]
1980s
1980
Canada, France
United States
1981
West Germany
1982
1983
France
1984
Poland
1985
France
1986
1987
France, West Germany
1988
Italy, France
1989
China
1990s
1990
United Kingdom, United States
1991
Soviet Union
1992
China
1993
United States
France, Poland
1994
Macedonia
Taiwan
1995
Vietnam, France
1996
Ireland, United Kingdom
1997
Japan
1998
Italy
1999
China
2000s
2000
Iran
2001
India
2002
Ireland, United Kingdom
2003
Russia
2004
United Kingdom
2005
United States
2006
China
2007
Taiwan, China, United States
2008
United States
2009
Israel
2010s
2010
§ United States
2011
§ Russia
2012
South Korea
2013
Italy
2014
Sweden
2015
Venezuela
2016
Philippines
2017
United States
2018
Mexico
2019
United States
2020s
2020
United States
2021
§ France
2022
United States
2023
Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
Notes
  • § Denotes unanimous win

    Multiple winners

    Four directors have won the award twice:

    Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

    See main article: Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

    YearWinner(s)
    1970 Orson Welles
    1971 Ingmar Bergman, Marcel Carné and John Ford
    1972 Charlie Chaplin, Anatoli Golovnya and Billy Wilder
    1982 Alessandro Blasetti, Luis Buñuel, Frank Capra, George Cukor, Jean-Luc Godard, Sergei Yutkevich, Alexander Kluge, Akira Kurosawa, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, King Vidor and Cesare Zavattini
    1983 Michelangelo Antonioni
    1985 Manoel de Oliveira, John Huston and Federico Fellini
    1986 Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
    1987 Luigi Comencini and Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    1988 Joris Ivens
    1989 Robert Bresson
    1990 Marcello Mastroianni and Miklós Jancsó
    1991 Mario Monicelli and Gian Maria Volonté
    1992 Jeanne Moreau, Francis Ford Coppola and Paolo Villaggio
    1993 Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro, Roman Polanski and Claudia Cardinale
    1994 Al Pacino, Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Ken Loach
    1995 Woody Allen, Monica Vitti, Martin Scorsese, Alberto Sordi, Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe De Santis, Goffredo Lombardo and Alain Resnais
    1996 Robert Altman, Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman and Michèle Morgan
    1997 Gérard Depardieu, Stanley Kubrick and Alida Valli
    1998 Warren Beatty, Sophia Loren and Andrzej Wajda
    1999 Jerry Lewis
    2000 Clint Eastwood
    2001 Éric Rohmer
    2002 Dino Risi
    2003 Dino De Laurentiis and Omar Sharif
    2004 Stanley Donen and Manoel de Oliveira
    2005 Hayao Miyazaki and Stefania Sandrelli
    2006 David Lynch
    2007 Tim Burton and Bernardo Bertolucci (for the last 75 years of the history of cinema)
    2008 Ermanno Olmi
    2009 John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
    2010 John Woo
    2011 Marco Bellocchio
    2012 Francesco Rosi
    2013 William Friedkin
    2014 Thelma Schoonmaker and Frederick Wiseman
    2015 Bertrand Tavernier
    2016 Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jerzy Skolimowski
    2017 Jane Fonda and Robert Redford
    2018 David Cronenberg and Vanessa Redgrave
    2019 Julie Andrews and Pedro Almodóvar
    2020 Ann Hui and Tilda Swinton[18]
    2021 Roberto Benigni and Jamie Lee Curtis
    2022 Catherine Deneuve[19] and Paul Schrader[20]
    2023 Liliana Cavani and Tony Leung Chiu-wai[21] [22]
    2024 Peter Weir and Sigourney Weaver[23] [24]

    See also

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: 25 Must-See Films That Won the Venice Film Festival . IndieWire . 2018 . 2019-10-08.
    2. Web site: Biennale Cinema History of the Venice Film Festival: The Forties and Fifties . La Biennale di Venezia . 2008 . 2008-05-28.
    3. Web site: Biennale Cinema History of the Venice Film Festival: The Sixties and Seventies. 2008. La Biennale di Venezia. 2008-05-28.
    4. News: Donaldson. Kayleigh. September 11, 2019. Joker's Insane Venice Film Festival Win Explained. Screen Rant. April 25, 2020.
    5. Book: Friedländer, Saul . The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945 . 2009-10-06 . Harper Collins . 978-0-06-198000-8 . en.
    6. Book: Kahn, Lothar . Insight and action : the life and work of Lion Feuchtwanger . 1975 . Rutherford, N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press . Internet Archive . 978-0-8386-1314-6.
    7. Book: Friedländer, Saul . The years of extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 . 2008 . Harper Perennial . 978-0-06-093048-6 . First Harper Perennial . New York London Toronto Sydney New Delhi Auckland . 100 . English.
    8. Book: Kahn, Lothar . Insight and action: the life and work of Lion Feuchtwanger . 1975 . Fairleigh Dickinson University Press . 978-0-8386-1314-6 . Rutherford, N.J.
    9. Book: Etlin, Richard A. . Art, culture, and media under the Third Reich . 15 October 2002 . University of Chicago Press . 978-0-226-22087-1 . Chicago . 143 . 11 November 2011.
    10. Web site: Golden Lions and major awards of the Venice Film Festival . labiennale.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170607233219/http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/history/awards1.html?back=true . 7 June 2017 . dmy . 31 December 2019 .
    11. Web site: 14. Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia. La Biennale di Venezia. Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee. it. April 23, 2020. September 17, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180917215315/http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/cinema/annali.php?a=1953. dead.
    12. News: Zacharek. Stephanie. Stephanie Zacharek. September 5, 2013. Venice update: Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves, James Franco's Child of God, and more. LA Weekly. April 5, 2020.
    13. Roos. Fred. Spring 1957. Venice Film Festival, 1956. The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television. 11. 3. 249. 10.2307/1209744. April 5, 2020. University of California Press. 1209744. The report began with a few sentences of praise for each of the 14 films, and then selected the Japanese Harp of Burma and the Spanish Calle Mayor as being particularly outstanding. Since the jury was unable to decide which of these two films was the superior, it had decided not to award a grand prix "St. Mark Golden Lion" this year..
    14. Web site: 30. Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia. La Biennale di Venezia. Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee. it. April 23, 2020. July 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200713235722/http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/cinema/annali.php?m=44. dead.
    15. Web site: Venice Film Festival History 1932-2019: The 70s. La Biennale di Venezia. 7 December 2017. en. April 23, 2020.
    16. Web site: The Post-war period: 1948 - 1973. La Biennale di Venezia. 12 April 2017. en. April 23, 2020.
    17. News: August 28, 1979. Venice Film Fete in Quest of Glamour. The New York Times. April 24, 2020. Carlo Lizzani, leftist director and the festival's new president, has not so far managed to restore the "Golden Lion" awards presented at Venice until 1968.
    18. Web site: Vivarelli. Nick. 2020-07-20. Venice Film Festival to Honor Tilda Swinton, Ann Hui With Golden Lions for Career Achievement. 2020-07-23. Variety. en.
    19. Web site: Venezia 79. Leone d'oro alla carriera a Catherine Deneuve: "È una gioia". La Repubblica. 1 June 2022. 1 June 2022.
    20. Web site: Venezia Cinema: Leone d'Oro alla carriera a Paul Schrader. Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata. 4 May 2022. 4 May 2022.
    21. Web site: A Liliana Cavani il Leone d'oro alla carriera dalla Mostra di Venezia. Corriere della Sera. 27 March 2023. 27 March 2023.
    22. Web site: 2023-03-27 . Biennale Cinema 2023 Director Liliana Cavani and actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement . 2023-07-25 . La Biennale di Venezia . en.
    23. Web site: Peter Weir Leone d'Oro alla carriera della Biennale Cinema 2024. labiennale.org. 9 May 2024. 9 May 2024.
    24. Web site: 2024-06-28 . Biennale Cinema 2024 Sigourney Weaver Leone d’Oro alla carriera . 2024-07-24 . La Biennale di Venezia . it.