By Crispian Balmer
VENICE -U.S. indie director Jim Jarmusch won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday with “Father Mother Sister Brother”, a three-part meditation on families, ageing and the uneasy ties between parents and their adult children.
Divided into chapters set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, the film features an ensemble cast including Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat.
Each instalment drifts gently through domestic encounters where nothing much happens, but small gestures and silences sketch out the generational awkwardness that can beset families.
Jarmusch, 72, is a mainstay of American independent cinema, making his name in the 1980s with offbeat, low-budget works such as “Stranger Than Paradise” and “Down by Law”.
His latest film drew mainly positive reviews, but was not a favourite for the top prize, with many critics instead tipping “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, a harrowing true-life account of the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl during the Gaza war.
In the end, the film directed by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania took the runner-up Silver Lion.
Italy’s Toni Servillo was named best actor for his wry portrayal of a weary president nearing the end of his mandate in “La Grazia”, directed by his long-time collaborator Paolo Sorrentino,
China’s Xin Zhilei won best actress for her role in “The Sun Rises On Us All”, a drama directed by Cai Shangjun that delves into questions of sacrifice, guilt and unresolved feelings between estranged lovers who share a dark secret.
The Venice festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars, with films premiering here over the past four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20.
GAZA TO THE FORE
Venice has often been seen as the most glamorous and least political of the major film festivals, but in 2025 the movies that made the strongest impact focused on current events, with the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza casting a long shadow.
As he unveiled his own picture last weekend, Jarmusch acknowledged that he was concerned that one of his main distributors had taken money from a company with ties to the Israeli military.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab”, which uses the real audio of a young girl’s desperate pleas for help as her car comes under Israeli gunfire, was the fan favourite winning a record 24-minute standing ovation at its premiere.
The best director nod went to Benny Safdie for “The Smashing Machine”, which starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the role of the real-life, mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr.
The special jury award went to Italy’s Gianfranco Rosi for his black-and-white documentary “Below the Clouds”, about life in the chaotic southern city of Naples, marked by repeated earthquakes and the threat of volcanic eruptions.
Among the movies that left Venice empty-handed were a trio of Netflix pictures, Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller “A House of Dynamite”, Guillermo del Toro’s re-telling of “Frankenstein” and Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama “Jay Kelly”.
“No Other Choice” by South Korea’s Park Chan-wook also failed to secure an award, despite strong reviews, likewise “Bugonia” by Yorgos Lanthimos, which starred Emma Stone.
The main jury was chaired by U.S. director Alexander Payne, joined by fellow filmmakers Stéphane Brizé, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Mohammad Rasoulof, alongside actresses Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao.
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