The 81st Venice Film Festival came to its close last Saturday with an award award-giving ceremony. The festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars, with eight of the past 12 best director awards at the Oscars going to films that debuted in Venice.

The Venice jury this year was headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert.

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's first English-language movie "The Room Next Door", which tackles the hefty themes of euthanasia and climate change, notably won the prestigious Golden Lion award during the event. 

Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film received an 18-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Venice earlier in the week - one of the longest in recent memory.

Photo: Reuters

Almodovar is a darling of the festival circuit and was awarded a lifetime achievement award at Venice in 2019 for his bold, irreverent and often funny Spanish-language features.

He also won an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language category for his 1999 film "All About My Mother".

While "The Room Next Door" had been widely tipped to win, the runner-up Silver Lion award was a surprise, going to Italian director Maura Delpero for her slow-paced drama set in the Italian Alps during World War Two - "Vermiglio".

Australia's Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Award for her risque role in the erotic "Babygirl", where she plays a hard-nosed CEO, who jeopardises both her career and her family by having a toxic affair with a young, manipulative intern.

France's Vincent Lindon was named best actor for "The Quiet Son", a topical, French-language drama about a family torn apart by extreme-right radicalism.

The best director award went to American Brady Corbet for his three-and-a-half-hour-long movie "The Brutalist" which was shot on 70mm celluloid and recounts the epic tale of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor played by Adrien Brody, who seeks to rebuild his life in the United States.

Here is a list of all the main award winners:

GOLDEN LION for best picture: "The Room Next Door" by Pedro Almodovar (Spanish production)

SILVER LION runner-up prize: "Vermiglio" by Maura Delpero (Italy, France, Belgium) 

Best Director: Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist" (Britain) 

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman for "Babygirl" (United States) 

Best Actor: Vincent Lindon for "The Quiet Son" (France)

Best Screenplay: Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for "I'm Still Here" (Brazil, France)

Special Jury Award: "April" by Dea Kulumbegashvili (France, Italy, Georgia)

Best Young Actor: Paul Kircher for "And Their Children After Them" (France)

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