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.
| Golden Lion | |
|---|---|
| Leone d'oro (Italian) | |
 | |
| Location | Venice |
| Country | Italy |
| Presented by | Venice Film Festival |
| First awarded | 1949 |
| Currently held by | Poor Things (2023) |
| Website | labiennale.org/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
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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 tough 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]
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949–1953: Awarded as "Golden Lion of Saint Mark" | ||||
| 1949 (10th) | Manon | Henri-Georges Clouzot | France | |
| 1950s | ||||
| 1950 (11th) | Justice Is Done | Justice est faite | André Cayatte | France |
| 1951 (12th) | Rashomon | 羅生門 | Akira Kurosawa | Japan |
| 1952 (13th) | Forbidden Games | Jeux interdits | René Clément | France |
| 1953 (14th) | 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 (15th) | Romeo and Juliet | Renato Castellani | United Kingdom | |
| 1955 (16th) | Ordet | Carl Theodor Dreyer | Denmark | |
| 1956 (17th) | 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 (18th) | Aparajito | অপরাজিত | Satyajit Ray | India |
| 1958 (19th) | Rickshaw Man | 無法松の一生 | Hiroshi Inagaki | Japan |
| 1959 (20th) | General Della Rovere | Il generale della Rovere | Roberto Rossellini | France, Italy |
| The Great War | La grande guerra | Mario Monicelli | ||
| 1960s | ||||
| 1960 (21st) | Tomorrow Is My Turn | Le Passage du Rhin | André Cayatte | France |
| 1961 (22nd) | Last Year at Marienbad | L'année dernière à Marienbad | Alain Resnais | |
| 1962 (23rd) | Family Diary | Cronaca familiare | Valerio Zurlini | Italy |
| Ivan's Childhood | Ива́ново де́тство | Andrei Tarkovsky | Soviet Union | |
| 1963 (24th) | Hands over the City | Le mani sulla città | Francesco Rosi | Italy |
| 1964 (25th) | Red Desert | Il deserto rosso | Michelangelo Antonioni | |
| 1965 (26th) | Sandra | Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa ... | Luchino Visconti | |
| 1966 (27th) | The Battle of Algiers | La battaglia di Algeri | Gillo Pontecorvo | Algeria, Italy |
| 1967 (28th) | Belle de Jour | Luis Buñuel | France | |
| 1968 (29th) | Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed | Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos | Alexander Kluge | West Germany |
| 1969 (30th) | No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive.[14] | |||
| 1970s | ||||
| 1970 (31st) | No award given, these editions of the festival were not competitive.[15] | |||
| 1971 (32nd) | ||||
| 1972 (33rd) | ||||
| 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.[15] | |||
| 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.[15] | |||
| 1978 | No award given, the festival was not organized this year.[15] | |||
| 1979 (36th) | No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive.[17] | |||
| 1980s | ||||
| 1980 (37th) | Atlantic City | Louis Malle | Canada, France | |
| Gloria | John Cassavetes | United States | ||
| 1981 (38th) | Marianne and Juliane | Die Bleierne Zeit | Margarethe von Trotta | West Germany |
| 1982 (39th) | The State of Things | Der Stand der Dinge | Wim Wenders | |
| 1983 (40th) | First Name: Carmen | Prénom Carmen | Jean-Luc Godard | France |
| 1984 (41st) | A Year of the Quiet Sun | Rok spokojnego słońca | Krzysztof Zanussi | Poland |
| 1985 (42nd) | Vagabond | Sans toit ni loi | Agnès Varda | France |
| 1986 (43rd) | The Green Ray | Le Rayon vert | Éric Rohmer | |
| 1987 (44th) | Au revoir les enfants | Louis Malle | France, West Germany | |
| 1988 (45th) | The Legend of the Holy Drinker | La leggenda del santo bevitore | Ermanno Olmi | Italy, France |
| 1989 (46th) | A City of Sadness | 悲情城市 | Hou Hsiao-hsien | Taiwan |
| 1990s | ||||
| 1990 (47th) | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard | United Kingdom, United States | |
| 1991 (48th) | Close to Eden | У́рга – территория любви | Nikita Mikhalkov | Soviet Union |
| 1992 (49th) | The Story of Qiu Ju | 秋菊打官司 | Zhang Yimou | China |
| 1993 (50th) | Short Cuts | Robert Altman | United States | |
| Three Colours: Blue | Trois couleurs: Bleu | Krzysztof Kieślowski | France, Poland | |
| 1994 (51st) | Before the Rain | Пред дождот | Milčo Mančevski | Macedonia |
| Vive L'Amour | 愛情萬歲 | Tsai Ming-liang | Taiwan | |
| 1995 (52nd) | Cyclo | Xích lô | Anh Hung Tran | Vietnam, France |
| 1996 (53rd) | Michael Collins | Neil Jordan | Ireland, United Kingdom | |
| 1997 (54th) | Hana-bi | はなび | Takeshi Kitano | Japan |
| 1998 (55th) | The Way We Laughed | Così ridevano | Gianni Amelio | Italy |
| 1999 (56th) | Not One Less | 一個都不能少 | Zhang Yimou | China |
| 2000s | ||||
| 2000 (57th) | The Circle | دایره | Jafar Panahi | Iran |
| 2001 (58th) | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair | India | |
| 2002 (59th) | The Magdalene Sisters | Peter Mullan | Ireland, United Kingdom | |
| 2003 (60th) | The Return | Возвращение | Andrey Zvyagintsev | Russia |
| 2004 (61st) | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh | United Kingdom | |
| 2005 (62nd) | Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee | United States | |
| 2006 (63rd) | Still Life | 三峡好人 | Jia Zhangke | China |
| 2007 (64th) | Lust, Caution | 色，戒 | Ang Lee | Taiwan, China, United States |
| 2008 (65th) | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | United States | |
| 2009 (66th) | Lebanon | לבנון | Samuel Maoz | Israel |
| 2010s | ||||
| 2010 (67th) | Somewhere § | Sofia Coppola | United States | |
| 2011 (68th) | Faust § | Alexander Sokurov | Russia | |
| 2012 (69th) | Pietà | 피에타 | Kim Ki-duk | South Korea |
| 2013 (70th) | Sacro GRA | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy | |
| 2014 (71st) | A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence | En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron | Roy Andersson | Sweden |
| 2015 (72nd) | From Afar | Desde allá | Lorenzo Vigas | Venezuela |
| 2016 (73rd) | The Woman Who Left | Ang Babaeng Humayo | Lav Diaz | Philippines |
| 2017 (74th) | The Shape of Water | Guillermo del Toro | United States | |
| 2018 (75th) | Roma | Alfonso Cuarón | Mexico | |
| 2019 (76th) | Joker | Todd Phillips | United States | |
| 2020s | ||||
| 2020 (77th) | Nomadland | Chloé Zhao | United States | |
| 2021 (78th) | Happening § | L'Événement | Audrey Diwan | France |
| 2022 (79th) | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | United States | |
| 2023 (80th) | Poor Things | Yorgos Lanthimos | Ireland, United Kingdom, United States | |
- Notes
- § Denotes unanimous win
Multiple Winners
Four directors have won the award twice:
- André Cayatte (1950 & 1960)
- Louis Malle (1980 & 1987)
- Zhang Yimou (1992 & 1999)
- Ang Lee (2005 & 2007)
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
See also
- Leone d'Argento (Silver Lion)
- Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival
- Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded at the Berlin Film Festival
References
External links
