Venice Film Festival Jury Bong Joon-ho "Focus on Themes Representing the Era"

Leading Categories Dominated by Female Directors... Golden Lion Award to Director Audrey Diwan's 'L'?v?nement'
"Works That Moved Us the Most and Made Us Feel the Beauty of Cinema Itself"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

"We just went wherever our hearts led us. When we gathered the award-winning works, there were female directors among them." This is what Director Bong Joon-ho, who served as the jury president at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, said. At the awards ceremony held on the 11th (local time) at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, Italy, he highly praised the advancement of female directors.

Female directors dominated the major categories of this festival. The top prize, the Golden Lion, went to Audrey Diwan's film L'?v?nement. It is a drama that delicately portrays the conflicts experienced by a French female college student in 1963 who decides to have an abortion after an unintended pregnancy. Jane Campion, famous for The Piano (1993) and The Portrait of a Lady (1996), received the Best Director award for her new work The Power of the Dog. It is praised for powerfully criticizing misogyny and homophobia by borrowing the framework of a Western film. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal won the Best Screenplay award for her directorial debut The Lost Daughter. The film has been highly acclaimed for honestly depicting the clash between maternal love for two daughters and the desire to find one's own life.

Director Bong stated that all three films stood out for their directing that brings out emotion and beauty. He said, "Like all the jurors, these were the works that moved us the most and made us feel the beauty of the films themselves," adding, "It is a happy thing that, in the end, female directors won the awards." He cited the thematic consciousness representing the era as the main focus of the judging. Bong said, "The seven jurors, including director Chlo? Zhao and actors Virginie Efira and Sara Gadon, each have their own perspectives and tastes," but added, "We focused on what themes of the present era the films were addressing." He emphasized, "It was not concentrated on one person, but the opinions of each juror blossomed, creating this result."