Chinese film Sanxia Haoren (Still Life), about the
giant Three Gorges Dam project and its impact on ordinary people
during the upheaval, won this year's Venice Film Festival top award
Golden Lion Saturday.
The film, directed by Chinese director Jia Zhangke, was a
surprise entry late in the festival, and unexpectedly beat the
other top candidates -- Emilio Estevez's Bobby, about the
assassination of Robert Kennedy, and Stephen Frears' The
Queen, about the week that followed Princess Diana's death.
Helen Mirren was named best actress for her portrayal of Queen
Elizabeth II in The Queen.
Ben Affleck carried the award of best actor for his role in
Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland, which dramatizes an
investigation into the death of George Reeves, star of the 1950s TV
show Adventures of Superman.
The Queen also took the prize of best script.
The Silver Lion for directing went to Alain Resnais for his film
Private Fears in Public Places.
The movie Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) by director
Emanuele Crialese won the Silver Lion for revelation, an award that
the jury does not have to hand out. The movie follows the voyage of
a Sicilian family in the early 1990s from their homeland to
America.
The festival's special jury prize went to Daratt,
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's movie about revenge in the civil war-scarred
nation of Chad.
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2006)
