French film about illegal abortion wins first prize at Venice film festival

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VENICE – “Happening” (L’Evenement), a hard-hitting French drama about illegal abortion in the 1960s, won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

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The film, by director Audrey Diwan, wowed viewers on the Lido seafront with its portrayal of a young woman desperate to fix a dismissal, at a time when it could mean a prison sentence or death, to continue with His studies.

The film is set in France in 1963, but its central theme is as relevant today as it was then, Diwan said visibly moved to the audience, just as the debate on abortion flares up again in the United States after the new restrictions in Texas.

“I made this movie with anger, with desire, with my belly, my guts, my heart and my head,” he said.

The awards ceremony concluded the 11-day movie marathon, with critics calling the lineup one of the best in years, as many films had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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“It’s amazing that you made this happen,” said Jane Campion of New Zealand, who won the Silver Lion award for best director with the 1920s frontier saga “The Power of the Dog.”

“It is special for us filmmakers to be here live with the audience and experience what we dream of.”

Stars from all over appeared in force on the Venice red carpet, a vital ingredient for a successful festival, and even more so after last year’s moderate edition.

Ben Affleck, holding hands with Jennifer Lopez, Matt Damon, Timothee Chalamet and Kristen Stewart were some of the Hollywood stars who made the trip to the oldest film festival in the world.

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Also creating a stir were two films that screened out of the main competition and were ineligible for awards: Denis Villeneuve’s remake of the sci-fi classic “Dune” and Ridley Scott’s medieval epic “The Last Duel.”

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FEMINIST FESTIVAL?

Diwan’s film was a fitting winner for a festival with many strong women’s stories, in a year in which the #MeToo movement appears to be making a mark on the film industry.

Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, the narrow framing of the image plunges the audience into the private trauma experienced by Anne, its protagonist.

“On set, I was always thinking: let’s not look at Anne, let’s be Anne,” Diwan said.

She is the sixth director to win the Venice showcase, here in its 78th edition. “Happening” is also the second French film to triumph at a major festival since Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in July.

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Among other awards, the second Grand Jury Prize went to Italian director Paolo Sorrentino for “The Hand of God,” his deeply personal film about the loss of his parents as a teenager.

Spanish Penelope Cruz won the best actress award for playing a single mother in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers”. The best actor award went to John Clay from the Philippines for “On The Job: The Missing 8.”

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