| Golden Lion | |
|---|---|
| Leone d'oro (Italian) | |
 | |
| Location | Venice |
| Country | Italy |
| Presented by | Venice Film Festival |
| Formerly called | Golden Lion of Saint Mark (1949–1953) |
| First award | 1949 |
| Currently held by | Father Mother Sister Brother (2025) |
| Website | labiennale.org/cinema |
TheGolden Lion (Italian:Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at theVenice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in1949 by the organizing committee and is widely regarded as one of thefilm industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes.[1][2] In1970, theGolden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was introduced, an honorary prize for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.
The prize was introduced in 1949 as the GoldenLion of Saint Mark, which was one of the best known symbols of the ancientRepublic of Venice.[3] In1954, the prize was permanently named the Golden Lion.
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The first Golden Lion was awarded in 1949. Previously, the equivalent prize was theGran Premio Internazionale di Venezia(Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to the Biennale's official website, the hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being given to the radically experimentalDie Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos; the website says that the awards "still had a statute dating back to the fascist era and could not side-step the general political climate. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past".[4]
Fourteen French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than to any other nation. However, there is considerable geographical diversity in the winners. Nine American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards forJohn Cassavetes andRobert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well asAng Lee (Brokeback Mountain was the first winning U.S. film not to tie),Darren Aronofsky,Sofia Coppola,Todd Phillips,Chloé Zhao,Laura Poitras, andJim Jarmusch.
Prior to 1980, only three of 21 winners were of non-European origin. Since the 1980s, the Golden Lion has been presented to a number of Asian filmmakers, particularly in comparison to the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, which has been awarded to five Asian filmmakers since 1980. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has been awarded to ten Asians during the same time period, with two of these filmmakers winning it twice. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years in the 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film.Zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 includeJia Zhangke,Hou Hsiao-hsien,Tsai Ming-liang,Trần Anh Hùng,Takeshi Kitano,Kim Ki-duk,Jafar Panahi,Mira Nair, andLav Diaz. Russian filmmakers have won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of the USSR.
To date, 33 of the 54 winners were European men, including Soviet/Russian winners. Since 1949, seven women have won the Golden Lion for directing:Margarethe von Trotta,Agnès Varda,Mira Nair,Sofia Coppola,Chloé Zhao,Audrey Diwan, andLaura Poitras. In 1938, German directorLeni Riefenstahl won the Festival when its highest award was the Coppa Mussolini. In 2019,Joker became the first movie based on original comic book characters to win the prize.[5]
From 1934 until 1942, the highest award of the festival was theCoppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film. Even though other awards were attributed toNazi propaganda films, such asJud Süß (Suss, the Jew), anantisemitic production made at the behest of Nazi Propaganda MinisterJoseph Goebbels, won the festival'sGolden Crown[6][7] award in 1940.[8][9][10]
After the end of the WWII during the reestablishment of the festival,The Southerner, directed byJean Renoir, won the main prize at the 1946 edition. In 1947 and 1948, the equivalent prize for the Golden Lion was theGran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded toKarel Steklý'sThe Strike in 1947 andLaurence Olivier'sHamlet in 1948.
These films received the Golden Lions or the major awards of the Venice Film Festival:[11]
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| Year | Title | Director | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Manon | Henri-Georges Clouzot | France |
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Justice Is Done | Justice est faite | André Cayatte | France |
| 1951 | Rashomon | 羅生門 | Akira Kurosawa | Japan |
| 1952 | Forbidden Games | Jeux interdits | René Clément | France |
| 1953 | No award given, the jury was unable to decide the winner and the prize was declared void[12][13] | |||
| 1954 | Romeo and Juliet | Renato Castellani | United Kingdom | |
| 1955 | Ordet | Carl Theodor Dreyer | Denmark | |
| 1956 | No award given, the jury was unable to decide the winner and the prize was declared void[14][a] | |||
| 1957 | Aparajito | অপরাজিত | Satyajit Ray | India |
| 1958 | Rickshaw Man | 無法松の一生 | Hiroshi Inagaki | Japan |
| 1959 | General Della Rovere | Il generale della Rovere | Roberto Rossellini | France, Italy |
| The Great War | La grande guerra | Mario Monicelli | ||
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Tomorrow Is My Turn | Le Passage du Rhin | André Cayatte | France |
| 1961 | Last Year at Marienbad | L'année dernière à Marienbad | Alain Resnais | |
| 1962 | Family Diary | Cronaca familiare | Valerio Zurlini | Italy |
| Ivan's Childhood | Ива́ново де́тство | Andrei Tarkovsky | Soviet Union | |
| 1963 | Hands over the City | Le mani sulla città | Francesco Rosi | Italy |
| 1964 | Red Desert | Il deserto rosso | Michelangelo Antonioni | |
| 1965 | Sandra | Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa ... | Luchino Visconti | |
| 1966 | The Battle of Algiers | La battaglia di Algeri | Gillo Pontecorvo | Algeria, Italy |
| 1967 | Belle de Jour | Luis Buñuel | France | |
| 1968 | Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed | Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos | Alexander Kluge | West Germany |
| 1969 | No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive[15] | |||
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | No award given, the editions of the festival were not competitive | [16] | |||
| 1971 | |||||
| 1972 | |||||
| 1973 | No award given, the festival was not organized during these years[b] | [16] | |||
| 1974 | |||||
| 1975 | |||||
| 1976 | |||||
| 1977 | No award given, the festival was not organized this year[c] | ||||
| 1978 | No award given, the festival was not organized this year | ||||
| 1979 | No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive | [17] | |||
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Atlantic City | Louis Malle | Canada, France | |
| Gloria | John Cassavetes | United States | ||
| 1981 | Marianne and Juliane | Die Bleierne Zeit | Margarethe von Trotta | West Germany |
| 1982 | The State of Things | Der Stand der Dinge | Wim Wenders | |
| 1983 | First Name: Carmen | Prénom Carmen | Jean-Luc Godard | France |
| 1984 | A Year of the Quiet Sun | Rok spokojnego słońca | Krzysztof Zanussi | Poland |
| 1985 | Vagabond | Sans toit ni loi | Agnès Varda | France |
| 1986 | The Green Ray | Le Rayon vert | Éric Rohmer | |
| 1987 | Au revoir les enfants | Louis Malle | France, West Germany | |
| 1988 | The Legend of the Holy Drinker | La leggenda del santo bevitore | Ermanno Olmi | Italy, France |
| 1989 | A City of Sadness | 悲情城市 | Hou Hsiao-hsien | Taiwan |
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard | United Kingdom, United States | |
| 1991 | Close to Eden | У́рга – территория любви | Nikita Mikhalkov | Soviet Union |
| 1992 | The Story of Qiu Ju | 秋菊打官司 | Zhang Yimou | China |
| 1993 | Short Cuts | Robert Altman | United States | |
| Three Colours: Blue | Trois couleurs: Bleu | Krzysztof Kieślowski | France, Poland | |
| 1994 | Before the Rain | Пред дождот | Milčo Mančevski | Macedonia |
| Vive L'Amour | 愛情萬歲 | Tsai Ming-liang | Taiwan | |
| 1995 | Cyclo | Xích lô | Anh Hung Tran | Vietnam, France |
| 1996 | Michael Collins | Neil Jordan | Ireland, United Kingdom | |
| 1997 | Hana-bi | はなび | Takeshi Kitano | Japan |
| 1998 | The Way We Laughed | Così ridevano | Gianni Amelio | Italy |
| 1999 | Not One Less | 一個都不能少 | Zhang Yimou | China |
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | The Circle | دایره | Jafar Panahi | Iran |
| 2001 | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair | India | |
| 2002 | The Magdalene Sisters | Peter Mullan | Ireland, United Kingdom | |
| 2003 | The Return | Возвращение | Andrey Zvyagintsev | Russia |
| 2004 | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh | United Kingdom | |
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee | United States | |
| 2006 | Still Life | 三峡好人 | Jia Zhangke | China |
| 2007 | Lust, Caution | 色，戒 | Ang Lee | Taiwan, China, United States |
| 2008 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | United States | |
| 2009 | Lebanon | לבנון | Samuel Maoz | Israel |
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Somewhere§ | Sofia Coppola | United States | |
| 2011 | Faust§ | Фауст | Alexander Sokurov | Russia |
| 2012 | Pietà | 피에타 | Kim Ki-duk | South Korea |
| 2013 | Sacro GRA | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy | |
| 2014 | A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence | En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron | Roy Andersson | Sweden |
| 2015 | From Afar | Desde allá | Lorenzo Vigas | Venezuela |
| 2016 | The Woman Who Left | Ang Babaeng Humayo | Lav Diaz | Philippines |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | Guillermo del Toro | United States, Mexico | |
| 2018 | Roma | Alfonso Cuarón | Mexico, United States | |
| 2019 | Joker | Todd Phillips | United States | |
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Nomadland | Chloé Zhao | United States | |
| 2021 | Happening§ | L'Événement | Audrey Diwan | France |
| 2022 | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | United States | |
| 2023 | Poor Things | Yorgos Lanthimos | Ireland, United Kingdom, United States | |
| 2024 | The Room Next Door | La habitación de al lado | Pedro Almodóvar | Spain |
| 2025 | Father Mother Sister Brother | Jim Jarmusch | United States, Ireland, France | |
Four directors have won the award twice:
A Golden Lion is considered one of the most prestigious prizes a film can receive.
The report began with a few sentences of praise for each of the 14 films [sic], and then selected the JapaneseHarp of Burma and the SpanishCalle Mayor as being particularly outstanding. Since the jury was unable to decide which of these two films was the superior, it had decided not to award a grand prix "St. Mark Golden Lion" this year.
Carlo Lizzani, leftist director and the festival's new president, has not so far managed to restore the "Golden Lion" awards presented at Venice until 1968
