Venice Film Festival 2011: Full List of Award Winners

The 2011 Venice Film Festival is, as they say, finito. The 68th annual Italian event that celebrates a world of cinema closed on Saturday with the presentation of the Golden Lion awards.

At the truly international event, films from Asia took three of eight top prizes, including a best director trophy for China's Shangjun Cai, who directed the film Ren Shan Ren Hai, which translates to People Mountain People Sea. The film is about a man searching for his brother's murderer.

It was only the second movie Shangjun has directed.

The top prize of the festival went to Russian Aleksander Sokurov for his take on Faust. But perhaps the most poignant film was Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad and The Politician, an Egyptian documentary on the 18-day revolution in February of this year, as seen from three different perspectives.

Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad and The Politician won the CICT-UNESCO “Enrico Fulchignoni” Award for the film that best shows values of peace and tolerance.

The winners of the Lion of the Future prize (this year won by an Italian film) took home $100,000, donated by Filmauro di Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.

Below is the full list of winners from the 2011 Venice Film Festival.

Golden Lion for Best Film:
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)

Silver Lion for Best Director:
Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (China - Hong Kong)

Special Jury Prize:
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actor:
Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actress:
Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress:
Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono (Japan)

Osella for the Best Cinematography:
Robbie Ryan for the film Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom)

Osella for Best Screenplay:
Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for the film Alpis (Alps) by Yorgos Lanthimos (Grecia)

Lion of the Future - “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film:
Là-bas by Guido Lombardi (Italy)

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
Marco Bellocchio

Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award 2011:
Al Pacino

Persol 3D Award for the Most Creative Stereoscopic Film of the Year:
Zapruder Filmmakers Group (David Zamagni, Nadia Ranocchi, and Monaldo Moretti)

L'Oréal Paris Award for Cinema:
Nicole Grimaudo

The Orizzonti section of the festival highlights the newest trends in world cinema -

Orizzonti Award (full-length films):
Kotoko by Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)

Special Orizzonti Jury Prize (full-length films):
Whores’ Glory di Michael Glawogger (Austria, Germania)

Orizzonti Award (medium-length films):
Accidentes Gloriosos by Mauro Andrizzi and Marcus Lindeen (Sweden, Denmark, Germany)

Orizzonti Award (short films):
In attesa dell'avvento by Felice D'Agostino and Arturo Lavorato (Italia)

Special Mentions:
O Le Tulafale (The Orator) by Tusi Tamasese (New Zealand, Samoa)
All The Lines Flow Out by Charles LIM Yi Yong (Singapore)

Finally, there are the Controcampo Italiano awards, given to avant garde Italian films -

Controcampo Award (for narrative feature-length films)
Scialla! by Francesco Bruni

Controcampo Award (for short films)
A Chjana by Jonas Carpignano

Controcampo Doc Award (for documentaries)
Pugni chiusi by Fiorella Infascelli

Special Mentions:
to the documentary Black Block by Carlo Augusto Bachschmidt
to Francesco Di Giacomo for the cinematography of Pugni chiusi