Laura Poitras wins Golden Lion award for opioid crisis documentary

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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a documentary by film extraordinaire Laura Poitras, embodies photographer Nan Goldin and her activism against the Sackler family, their art connections, and the opioid crisis - awarding the director the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice international film festival.

The American filmmaker and mastermind behind the Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, expressed her gratitude to the festival for recognizing that “documentary is cinema” on Saturday evening in Venice. Film distributor Neon is expected to release the film in cinemas this fall.

Goldin fought against the Sackler family, founders of a pharmaceutical company, whose promotion of Oxycontin (an opioid drug) succeeded through their company Purdue Pharma. In October 2020, Purdue Pharma pled guilty to criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice concerning its marketing of Oxycontin, and the Sacklers paid $225 million to the DoJ in relation to their alleged role in the opioid crisis.

Alice Diop’s Saint Omer came in as runner-up, a narrative feature about a young novelist observing the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.

Renowned actors Cate Blanchett and Colin Farrell won the top acting prizes, with the former for her performance as a well-known conductor in Todd Field’s TÁR - claiming universal praise for her performance as a successful woman in the world of international music whose reputation comes under threat. 

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Farrell won for playing a man who has broken up with his longtime friend, played by Brendan Gleeson, in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, but was not present to receive the award. McDonagh won the best screenplay award, the same recognition in Venice for his 2017 feature Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 

Italian film director and producer, Luca Guadagnino, scored the Silver Lion award for best director for the unorthodox cannibal romance Bones and All, starring young actors Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell who was recognized for her performance with the best young actress award.

The Venice film festival is a prolific launchpad for the race towards Academy Award campaigns and nominations, and has had a particularly strong track record for directors in recent years. Eight of the last 10 best director Oscars have gone to films that premiered in Venice. The festival also saw the premiere of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser as a secluded morbidly obese English teacher and marking his major film comeback after being largely absent from leading roles for the better part of two decades, which led to speculations of him becoming a key name in the ongoing race for the Academy Awards.