Complete List of 2024 Venice Film Festival Winners

The world’s oldest film festival, the Venice Film Festival, made a grand return to form after a noticeably quieter 2023 edition marred by strikes in the industry. Numerous Oscar-winning actors (Nicole Kidman, Adrien Brody, Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore), as well as Golden Lion-winning directors (Todd Phillips, Alfonso Cuarón), flocked to the Lido for a chance to win this year’s top prizes.

Film icon Sigourney Weaver was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on the first night of the film festival. Her remarkable career spanning over fifty years includes roles in films such as Working Girl, Alien, and Gorillas in the Mist, as well as Avatar. The equivalent prize for directing went to the formidable Australian director Peter Weir, who has directed cult favorites like Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, and Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

The most important prizes of the festival are the Golden Lion, which is the most prominent award, the jury prizes for second and third place, the Silver Lion for directing, the Volpi Cups for best actor and actress, the Golden Osella prize for best screenplay, and the Marcello Mastroianni award for most promising newcomer. “I have good news for you: cinema is in great shape,” said Isabelle Huppert, the president of this year’s jury.

During the closing ceremony, Huppert continued her speech by praising the other jurors, which this year included actor Zhang Ziyi and directors Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, and James Gray.  “We thought about our past, we thought about our present, and we thought about our future—all those windows to the world were wide open, and all we saw was invention, creativity, care, and concern,” she said. “So I want to thank my wonderful and perceptive jury for sharing these great moments with me with passion and conviction.”

The Room Next Door winning the Golden Lion was the major headline of the evening. In Pedro Almodóvar’s debut English-language film, female stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton gave remarkable performances. But just as noteworthy was Nicole Kidman’s brave performance in Babygirl, which won her the Volpi Cup for best actress and virtually assured her a spot in the Oscar race (in a moving speech, Kidman’s director Halina Reijn revealed that she was unable to accept her award in person because she had returned home to Australia following her mother’s death this week).

In the meantime, Déa Kulumbegashvili, a filmmaker from Georgia, won a special jury prize for her breakthrough film April, which takes a slant on the traditional abortion drama narrative and won rave reviews from critics. In the end, Brady Corbet won the best director award for his breakthrough festival hit, The Brutalist, which many had predicted to win the Golden Lion before Almodóvar’s unexpected triumph.

The journey of the festival’s most acclaimed films is only getting started, considering Venice’s reputation for predicting the names to watch come awards season—four of the past ten best picture Oscar winners had their premieres on the Lido. See the complete list of winners below, and get ready to watch as they start preparing for the 2025 Oscar race.

2024 Venice Film Festival Winners:

Golden Lion: The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)

Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Vermiglio (Maura Delpero)

Silver Lion for Best Director: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Special Jury Prize: April (Déa Kulumbegashvili)

Best Screenplay: Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, I’m Still Here

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Babygirl

Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, The Quiet Son

Marcello Mastroianni Best Young Actor Award: Paul Kirscher, And Their Children After Them

Orizzonti Best Film: The New Year that Never Came (Bodgan Muresanu)

Orizzonti Best Director: Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)

Orizzonti Special Jury Prize: One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Murat Firatoğlu)

Orizzonti Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch

Orizzonti Best Actor: Francesco Gheghi, Familia

Orizzonti Best Screenplay: Happy Holidays (Scandar Copti)

Orizzonti Best Short Film: Who Loves the Sun (Arshia Shakiba)

Lion of the Future Award for a Debut Film: Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)

Orizzonti Extra Audience Award: Shahed (The Witness) (Nader Saeivar)

Venice Classics — Best Documentary: Chain Reactions (Alexandre O. Phillipe)

Venice Classics — Best Restored Film: Ecce Bombo (Nanni Moretti)

Venice Immersive Grand Prize: Ito Meikū (Boris Labbé)

Venice Immersive Achievement Prize: Impulse, Playing with Reality (Barry Gene Murphy, May Abdalla)

Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize: Oto’s Planet (Gwenael François)

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