“Poor Things”, a gothic, sex-charged comedy directed by Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos, gained the distinguished Golden Lion award on the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. Starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, the British-made movie wowed festival-goers with its zany story of a girl reanimated after suicide by a mad physician who replaces her mind with that of her unborn child.

Childlike however with an grownup’s physique, Stone’s character Bella Baxter grows more and more unbiased and excited by her sexual experimentations as she undertakes a voyage of self-discovery by a surreal model of nineteenth century Europe. “The central character is Bella Baxter, an incredible creature, and she would not exist without Emma Stone, another incredible creature,” mentioned Lanthimos, whose earlier movies embody “The Favourite” amd “The Lobster”.

Venice marks the beginning of the awards season and usually throws up large favourites for the Oscars, with eight of the previous 11 finest director awards going to movies that debuted right here. The prime appearing awards on the competition went to 2 U.S. stars — Cailee Spaeny, who performed the previous spouse of Elvis Presley within the biopic “Priscilla”, and Peter Sarsgaard, who featured within the gritty household drama “Memory”.

The runner-up Silver Lion award went to “Evil Does Not Exist”, an enigmatic, rural drama directed by Japan’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi — the one Asian entry among the many 23 movies competing for the primary prize. STRIKE ACTION

Saturday’s ceremony wrapped up the 11-day film marathon, which drew an array of prime movies to Venice, however far fewer stars than regular as a long-running Hollywood actors’ strike prevented many A-listers from coming to advertise their work. Actors and writers are demanding that streaming websites and movie studios enhance their contracts and impose curbs on the usage of synthetic intelligence.

Collecting his award, Sarsgaard mentioned AI needed to be curbed, warning that the difficulty had implications that went far past Hollywood. “This holy experience of being a human will be handed over to the machines and the eight billionaires who own them. So if we lose that battle in the strike, our industry will be the first of many to fall,” he mentioned.

Among different prizes handed out in Venice was a particular Jury’s Award for “Green Border”, a harrowing movie about migrants trapped on the Polish-Belarus border, directed by Poland’s Agnieszka Holland. Best director went to Italy’s Matteo Garrone for “Me Captain”, one other gripping migrant film, which follows two youngsters from Senegal as they cross Africa hoping to succeed in Europe. The younger star of the movie, Seydou Sarr, gained the award for finest rising actor or actress.

Best screenplay went to Guillermo Calderon and Pablo Larrain for the script of “El Conde”, a satirical movie about Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

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