May el-Toukhy’s filmWoman Unknowncaptured the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, marking the Egyptian-Danish director as the eighth woman to ever receive the top prize. The film, set in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation of Denmark, follows a young housemaid named Marie, played by Mathilde Arcel, who fears her employer will discover her wartime romantic history with a German soldier.
Critics have lauded the film as “elegantly appointed,” drawing comparisons to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. While festival rules generally restrict a single film to one award, the jury granted an exception for Arcel, who also received the Volpi Cup for best actress. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal noted the decision was unanimous, stating, “She is going to blow our socks off.”
In her acceptance speech, El-Toukhy addressed the scarcity of female filmmakers in the competition and acknowledged the toll of the project. “This film has been incredibly challenging to make financially, logistically, emotionally,” she said, describing an urgent drive to highlight the stories of overlooked women in history.
The festival’s special jury prize was awarded toNAZAa documentary co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Produced by, the film examines Israel’s use of artificial intelligence to track airstrikes in Gaza. The title refers to an intelligence acronym representing predicted civilian death tolls. Accepting the award, Abraham expressed concern over preemptive attacks on the film by politicians and journalists, noting, “So much is being done not to look at reality.” The Israeli military issued a categorical denial of the documentary’s allegations the day after its premiere.
Additional honors included the Grand Jury prize for Lee Chang-dong’sPossible Love. The Silver Lion for best director went to Ilya Khrzhanovsky forDAUa biopic concerning physicist Lev Landau. The inclusion ofDAUhad previously sparked controversy due to the lead actor’s position on the invasion of Ukraine and the film’s financial origins. During a press conference, Khrzhanovsky expressed his desire for peace and the preservation of the Ukrainian government.
John Malkovich received the Volpi Cup for best actor for his performance in Martin McDonagh’sWild Horse Nine. The 72-year-old actor accepted the award via video link, expressing humility at being honored alongside the legacy of previous winners during the festival’s 83rd iteration. The report also notes that the film, which was produced by, is based on testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders who are interviewed anonymously at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv. The report also notes that “It’s honestly not very easy to stand here, thinking of all the Israeli politicians and journalists who are now attacking this film and denying it without even seeing it,” Abraham said when accepting his prize. The report also notes that before the start of the conflict, dAU was filmed in Kharkiv between 2008 and 2011. The report also notes that and especially tonight, I feel like I succeeded in doing just that.”. The report also notes that it takes its title from an acronym used by the intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. The report also notes that a biopic of the Nobel prize-winning quantum physicist Lev Landau, who was pressured into working on the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons programme, the Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky won the Silver Lion for best director for the visually stunning DAU. The report also notes that at a press conference on the Lido, Khrzhanovsky said: “The only thing I can wish for is peace and success for the Ukrainian government to succeed in the best possible way, to save the country and to win this war.”.
Festival Awards Summary
- Golden LionWoman Unknowndirected by May el-Toukhy
- Grand Jury PrizePossible Lovedirected by Lee Chang-dong
- Silver Lion (Best Director)Ilya Khrzhanovsky forDAU
- Special Jury PrizeNAZAdirected by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
- Best ScreenplayUn bon petit soldat (A Good Little Soldier)Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo, and Olivier Gorce
- Volpi Cup (Best Actress)Mathilde ArcelWoman Unknown
- Volpi Cup (Best Actor)John MalkovichWild Horse Nine
- Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor)Malou Khebizi15/18 A Place to Heal
- Armani Beauty Audience AwardEu contez (I Matter)directed by Alina Șerban
- Luigi De Laurentiis Award (Best Debut Film)La maison du vent (House of the Wind)directed by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
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