Italian director Ermanno Olmi received the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement on Friday.
The 77-year-old director won the Golden Lion at Venice for “La Leggenda Del Santo Bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker)” and the Palme D’Or at Cannes for “The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L’Albero Degli Zoccoli).”
During a press conference, Olmi recalled being inspired by the Italian neorealism of Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio de Sica.
He said audiences didn’t know how to react to Rossellini’s postwar masterpieces “Roma Citta Aperta (Open City)” and “Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero)” because the movies made them too uncomfortable.
“The cinema of Rossellini, of Di Sica … is a cinema of the honest men of neorealism, one that has the value of allowing you to recognize yourself on the screen,” Olmi said.
Olmi also said he has seen signs of a renaissance in Italian filmmaking in the last few years, citing films such as “il Divo,” a lively portrait of former Premier Giulio Andreotti by Paolo Sorrentino, which was honored at Cannes this year.
“Cinema is beginning again to be aware of being an instrument of civility,” Olmi said.
It was announced Thursday that “Tierra Y Pan (Land and Bread)” by Mexican director Carlos Armella had won the top prize in the festival’s short film competition. The 8-minute film deals with hunger in a desert landscape.
The jury cited Armella’s capacity to “tell in (a) few minutes and in one space a dramatic tale of misery and loneliness.”
Armella said that the most difficult part in making the film was keeping it simple.
“The goal was to provoke from the audience the feeling of having witnessed a very hard, tragic moment but without ever actually having seen it,” Armella said in a statement.
The 30-year-old director studied scriptwriting in Mexico and filmmaking at the London Film School. He co-directed and edited “Toro Negro,” which won awards at the San Sebastian and the Havana film festivals, as well as “Born Without,” which won a prize at the Mexico City International Contemporary Festival.
DGA Feature Nominees: Audiard, Baker, Berger, Corbet and Mangold
The field of feature nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards spanning two categories is set. Nominated for the DGA honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 are: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.
The DGA also revealed the nominees for the Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. The first-time narrative feature directors are: Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light, Megan Park for My Old Ass, RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys, Halfdan Ullman Tondel for Armand, and Sean Wang for Diddy.
“2024 has been a truly extraordinary year for storytelling--and today’s nominees have created audacious and unique films that expand the possibilities of cinematic excellence,” said DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “I am thrilled to congratulate all our nominated directors for their brilliant work, which is visionary, inspirational and speaks to the depth of the human experience. To be chosen by one’s peers is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement and what makes these nominations so very special.”
The winners will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8.
Here’s a fuller rundown of the nominees in both DGA Award categories:
THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 (in alphabetical order):
JACQUES AUDIARD
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
SEAN... Read More
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