Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother wins top prize at Venice Film Festival

Father Mother Sister Brother, Jim Jarmusch’s quietly humorous relationship three-part movie, won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

The film about the relationships between adult children, and with their parents, stars Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchett.

It was an upset win over some of the festival’s bigger hits, including The Voice Of Hind Rajab, which won the runner-up award, and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice.

Jarmusch noted it was a surprise choice and thanked the festival for recogising his “quiet film”.

Kaouther Ben Hania’s devastating Gaza docudrama, The Voice of Hind Rajab, won the Silver Lion, the runner-up prize.

The film is about attempt to rescue a six-year-old girl from a bullet-ridden car in Gaza City in January 2024 and uses the real audio from her call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

The film premiered later in the festival, but its impact against some Hollywood heavyweights, including Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Kathryn Bigelow’s A House Of Dynamite was not dulled.

It received a 22-minute standing ovation after its premiere.

The Alexander Payne-led jury named Chinese actor Xin Zhilei best actress for leading Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All, a story about a love triangle set in the world of sweatshops in Guangzhou.

Italian actor Toni Servillo won best actor for playing a president at the end of his term in Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia.

Benny Safdie took the best director prize for his Mark Kerr MMA biopic The Smashing Machine, which has kicked off Oscar buzz for its star, Dwayne Johnson.

“I never thought I’d be up here,” Safdie said. “To be here amongst the giants of the past and the giants here this year, it just blows my mind.”

He also thanked his subject, Kerr, and his stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.

“You truly performed with no net, and we jumped off a cliff together,” Safdie said of Johnson.
The special jury prize went to Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi for his lyrical Naples documentary, Below The Clouds.

They also singled out Swiss actor Luna Wedler with the Marcello Mastroianni Award, which goes to a young actor, for her turn in the film “Silent Friend,” a poetic three-part story about a ginkgo tree in a medieval university town in Germany.

Since 2014, the Venice Film Festival has anticipated four best picture winners, including: The Shape Of Water, Birdman, Spotlight and Nomadland.

Last year’s Golden Lion winner, Pedro Almodovar’s English-language debut, The Room Next Door, a smash at Venice with an 18-minute standing ovation, received no Oscar nominations.