Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things Becomes An Oscars Front-Runner With Venice Golden Lion Win
Things are looking up — way up — for the latest film from the Greek cinematic maestro of weird, Yorgos Lanthimos. "Poor Things" had already been picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight before it made its way to the 80th Venice International Film Festival, but Searchlight recently pushed the film from its September 8 release date back to December amid the historic and ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes. If the studios had seen fit to part with less than 1 percent of their annual revenue to give the writers and actors a fair deal, many of us might have already seen "Poor Things" by now. But now we have all the more reason to look forward to it.
This afternoon, Venezia's mistress of ceremonies, the Italian actress Caterina Murino, took to the Palazzo del Cinema to announce the festival's award winners. The top prize of the Golden Lion (think Palme d'Or or the Oscars' Best Picture award) went to "Poor Things." Because festival rules hold that no film can win multiple awards, star Emma Stone went home empty-handed, despite being the Best Actress award's front-runner by a mile.
Oscar talk has already commenced for Stone, Lanthimos, and the film. In terms of bellwethers, the award most commonly looked to as a Best Picture indicator on the international circuit is the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award. Over the course of the 2010s, the People's Choice Award predicted three Best Picture winners and six other nominees. But the Golden Lion has steadily been climbing in favorability among awards-casters, given the 2017-2020 run of "The Shape of Water," "Roma," "Joker," and "Nomadland."
Could this vote of confidence in Venice be enough for "Poor Things" to mount serious competition against the juggernaut that is Barbenheimer? Let's see.
Could Poor Things take home a Little Gold Man?
"Poor Things" is something of a female Frankenstein tale. Adapted by Tony McNamara from the novel by Alasdair Gray, "Poor Things" follows Isabella "Bella" Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) and set loose in an off-kilter, sci-fi-skewed, belle epoque world. Given a second chance at life, Bella comes to really understand how precious human rights and women's liberation are as she learns how to use her senses again, and so she becomes their champion. The film has already become somewhat notorious for its apparently frank and sometimes graphic depictions of sex – which, combined with the sci-fi elements, may hurt its chances at the Oscars.
"Poor Things" isn't a biopic, it leans hard into genre, and it's raunchy: three features that usually count against films nominated for Academy Awards. Then again, "Everything Everywhere All At Once" swept the Oscars last year, and that movie ticked off all those boxes, too. The People's Choice Award has been the trophy to watch ahead of the Best Picture race; three winners from the 2010s went on to win the top prize at the Academy Awards, and six others were nominated. But for a major European festival, which tend to skew more arthouse and (obviously) less American than the Oscars, Venice has been on a streak of its own. From 2017-2020, the Golden Lion went to "The Shape of Water," "Roma," "Joker" (really, actually), and "Nomadland."
Could this Venezia push be enough for Bella Baxter to elbow Barbie and Oppie out of the running? If you ask me, no. But I will be seated and watching.
The other big winners
The further down you read on the list of winners at Venezia 80, the more interesting and vital they sound. The Silver Lion Grand Jury prize, basically second place, went to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's "Evil Does Not Exist." Hamaguchi's patient, meditative, and absorbing style, which he's lent to over 20 films to this point, captured the zeitgeist two years ago in the form of "Drive My Car." "Evil Does Not Exist" depicts the efforts of a Tokyo corporation to buy up the land around a lake, an eco-thriller in the way only Hamaguchi can make one — slow, simmering, and inscrutable.
The Volpi Cup for Best Actress and Best Actor went to two Americans: newcomer Cailee Spaeny for her turn as Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola's "Priscilla," and Peter Sarsgaard, who co-leads Michel Franco's "Memory" with Jessica Chastain. If you look up the films of Mexican director Michel Franco you'll see a lot of people hugging sadly, and it seems like we'll get more of that from "Memory," which follows the blossoming romance between a social worker (Chastain) and her former classmate (Sarsgaard), who's secretly battling dementia.
The Silver Lion for Best Director went to Matteo Garrone, the Italian filmmaker whose "Io Capitano" follows a young Senegalese immigrant's harrowing journey by sea to Europe (played by the non-professional Seydou Sarr, who also won a newcomer award). The most exciting award of the festival, if you ask me, went to the veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland for another immigrant drama, "The Green Border." Holland has been making quiet masterpieces across genres since the 1970s, when she assistant-directed for the great Andrzej Wajda. Best known for "The Secret Garden" and "Europa Europa," Holland's pace hasn't ever slumped, and "Green Border" promises an uncompromising look at the ongoing crisis at the Belarus-Poland border, where Syrian and Afghan refugees are continually tossed from one side to the other, enduring abuse throughout. U.S. distribution rights have yet to be picked up, but that's sure to happen soon.