“Cinema is in great shape.” These were the words of Isabelle Huppert, the chair of the jury for the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, which has handed the Golden Lion to director Pedro Almodóvar, who over the course of 43 years has made a decisive contribution to cinema, particularly that of Europe. Pedro was victorious with his first English-language film, The Room Next Door [+], in which he called on the talents of two legends, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, in order to ruminate on the topic of death.

The Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize went to an Italian director, Maura Delpero, for Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride [+], an ambitious tale of a family in a remote village in the Alps at the end of World War II. “It was a film born of a dream, but I didn’t know that it would end in a dream as well,” remarked the grateful director.

The Silver Lion – Award for Best Director was bestowed upon the man behind the film that sparked the most debate on the Lido, which was both loved and hated, and shied away from mainstream attributes also because of its duration (at almost three-and-a-half hours long): US helmer Brady Corbet for his The Brutalist [+], a US-UK-Hungarian co-production.

April [+], the eagerly awaited second feature by young Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili, who made a splash with her feature debut, Beginning [+] (the winner of the Golden Shell at San Sebastián), picked up the Special Jury Prize and provides further proof of her rigorous style.

Another very well-deserved prize was the Award for Best Screenplay for Brazil’s Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for I’m Still Here [+] by Walter Salles, a very special film for so many people at the Mostra, starring the extraordinary Fernanda Torres.

The Volpi Cup for Best Actress was bestowed upon Nicole Kidman for Babygirl by Halina Reijn, although sadly, the win was tainted by news of the death of the actress’s mother. Kidman therefore left beforehand without taking part in the ceremony. Virtually a foregone conclusion was the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, which went to France’s Vincent Lindon, who once again demonstrated his immense talent in the family drama The Quiet Son [+] by Delphine and Muriel Coulin. The Marcello Mastroianni Award was for Paul Kircher, the young star of And Their Children After Them [+] by brothers Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma, coming on the heels of his award at San Sebastián for Winter Boy [+] as well as two César Award nominations, to boot.

The Orizzonti section also had a few surprises up its sleeve this year. The jury presided over by writer-director Debra Granik opted for Romania’s The New Year that Never Came [+] by Bogdan Mureşanu as the main winner. The Best Director Award, meanwhile, went to US helmer Sarah Friedland, the auteur behind Familiar Touch, a very non-Hollywood movie that also scooped the Lion of the Future - "Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for a Debut Film. Also rewarded was its lead actress, 79-year-old Kathleen Chalfant, while the Best Actor in Orizzonti was deemed to be 21-year-old Italian Francesco Gheghi, the intense lead in Familia [+] by Francesco Costabile, revolving around violence within the family. The Special Jury Prize was handed to the Turkish flick One of Those Days When Hemme Dies [+] by Murat Fıratoğlu. Finally, Best Screenplay was for Palestinian director with Israeli citizenship Scandar Copti for his Happy Holidays [+]. In a video message, Copti brought up “the genocide currently going on in Gaza”.

Here is the full list of winners:

Competition

Golden Lion for Best Film
The Room Next Door [+] - Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)

Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize
Vermiglio [+] - Maura Delpero (Italy/France/Belgium)

Special Jury Prize
April [+] - Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia/France/Italy)

Silver Lion - Award for Best Director
Brady Corbet - The Brutalist [+] (USA/UK/Hungary)

Volpi Cup for Best Actress
Nicole Kidman - Babygirl (USA)

Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Vincent Lindon - The Quiet Son [+] (France)

Award for Best Screenplay
Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega - I`m Still Here [+] (Brazil/France)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent
Paul Kircher - And Their Children After Them [+] (France)

Orizzonti

Best Film
The New Year that Never Came [+] - Bogdan Mureşanu (Romania/Serbia)

Best Director
Sarah Friedland - Familiar Touch (USA)

Special Jury Prize
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies [+] - Murat Fıratoğlu (Turkey)

Best Actress
Kathleen Chalfant - Familiar Touch

Best Actor
Francesco Gheghi - Familia [+] (Italy)

Best Screenplay
Happy Holidays [+] - Scandar Copti (Palestine/Germany/France/Italy/Qatar)

Best Short Film
Who Loves the Sun - Arshia Shakiba (Canada)

Orizzonti Extra

Audience Award
The Witness [+] - Nader Saeivar (Germany/Austria/Turkey)

Venice Classics

Best Documentary on Cinema
Chain Reactions - Alexandre O Philippe (USA)

Best Restored Film
Ecce bombo - Nanni Moretti (Italy) (1978)

Venice Immersive

Grand Prize
Ito Meikyu - Boris Labbé (France/Luxembourg)

Special Jury Prize
Oto’s Planet - Gwenael François (Luxembourg/Canada/France)

Achievement Prize
Impulse: Playing with Reality - Barry Gene Murphy and May Abdalla (UK/France)

Non-section-specific award

Lion of the Future - "Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for a Debut Film
Familiar Touch - Sarah Friedland