Biennale Cinema  65th Venice Film Festival  Official Venezia 65 Awards   Venice, 6th September 2008The Venezia 65 Jury, chaired by Wim Wenders and comprised of  Juriy Arabov, Valeria Golino, Douglas Gordon, Lucrecia Martel, John Landis, and Johnnie To, having viewed all twenty-one films in competition, has decided as follows: GOLDEN LION for Best Film:The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky (USA) SILVER LION for Best Director to:Aleksey German Jr. for Bumažnyj Soldat (P...

The Venezia 65 Jury, chaired by Wim Wenders and comprised of Juriy Arabov, Valeria Golino, Douglas Gordon, Lucrecia Martel, John Landis, and Johnnie To, having viewed all twenty-one films in competition, has decided as follows: GOLDEN LION for Best Film:The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky (USA) SILVER LION for Best Director to:Aleksey German Jr. for Bumažnyj Soldat (Paper Soldier) (Russia)SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:Teza by Haile Gerima (Ethiopia, Germany, France)COPPA VOLPI for Best Actor:Silvio Orlan...

The surprise winner of the Golden Lion (Grand Prix for Best Film) was the untouted Chinese entry "Sanxia Haoren" (Still Life) by youthful director Jia Zhang-ke, immediately styled "a perplexing verdict" by dean of Italian film critics, Tullio Kezich. The general reaction to the jury's off-the-wall decision was something like "they must be kidding!" Although residing in the competition section, the pic was projected mostly at late night red-eye screenings, when most of the press had either packe...