'Revenge' Highlighting Women's Abortion Wins Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival

Director Audrey Diwan
Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The honor of the Golden Lion at the 78th Venice International Film Festival went to French female director Audrey Diwan.

At the awards ceremony held on the last day of the festival, the 11th (local time), at the 'Palazzo del Cinema' on Lido Island in Venice, Italy, French director Audrey Diwan received the Golden Lion for her film L'?v?nement (Happening). The film depicts the conflict experienced by a French female university student in 1963 as she faces an unintended pregnancy and decides to have an abortion.

According to the Associated Press, the jury led by director Bong Joon-ho unanimously selected L'?v?nement as the Golden Lion winner.

This decision is also seen as a "timely choice" amid growing controversy over women's abortion rights, triggered by the introduction of the 'abortion ban law' in Texas, USA.

This is the sixth time in the history of the Venice Film Festival that a female director's work has won the Golden Lion. The Grand Jury Prize went to Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God, and the Best Director award was given to Jane Campion for her new film The Power of the Dog.

Pen?lope Cruz, who gave a powerful performance in Spanish master Pedro Almod?var's Parallel Mothers, won Best Actress, while Filipino actor John Arcilla, who appeared in On the Job: The Missing 8, won Best Actor.

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