A Danish historical drama about a woman concealing a wartime relationship with a Nazi soldier has taken the top prize at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. 'Woman Unknown' ('Kvinde Ukendt'), directed by May el-Toukhy, was awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the closing ceremony on Saturday, making el-Toukhy only the eighth woman in the festival's history to win its top honour. The film stars Danish actress Mathilde Arcel — in her first-ever film role — as a domestic servant and bride-to-be desperately hiding the shame of a past relationship during the Nazi occupation of Denmark in the Second World War. Arcel also took home the best actress prize, visibly emotional as she clutched her award on stage. "If it's a dream I really don't want to wake up," she told the audience.
El-Toukhy was one of only two women directing films in competition among the 21 titles vying for prizes — the other being Israeli co-director Rachel Szor. The near-total absence of women behind the camera had been a talking point throughout the festival. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal, the American actor and director, had flagged the issue on the very first day. "There's a systemic problem," she told reporters. Accepting her Golden Lion, el-Toukhy framed the film's themes in broader terms: "'Woman Unknown' is about the female body as a battleground and a public matter — and at the same time, the film tells the tale of women who are invisible, unseen and voiceless."
Among other major prizes, the Silver Lion — the festival's second-highest award — went to 'Possible Love' by acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, widely praised during the festival's ten days. The best director prize was awarded to Russian-born Ilya Khrzhanovsky for 'DAU', an ambitious, decades-in-the-making experimental film about Lev Landau, the troubled father of the Soviet nuclear programme. The project, over three hours long, involved 2,000 participants, many of whom lived for months in character on a full-scale reconstruction of a secret Soviet research institute. Khrzhanovsky dedicated the prize to the people of Ukraine. American actor John Malkovich, 72, won best actor for his role as a jaded CIA operative in the dark comedy 'Wild Horse Nine', set against the backdrop of the 1973 US-backed military coup in Chile — his first major prize at a top-tier film festival despite a long and varied career.
The documentary 'NAZA', co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by The Guardian, received the special jury prize. The film, which drew a record 25-minute standing ovation at its premiere, features testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers describing AI-powered targeting systems used in the bombardment of Gaza. "The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design," Abraham told the ceremony. The Israeli military has disputed the film, saying the identities of the anonymous whistleblowers "cannot be verified." Festival chief Alberto Barbera had promised this year's selection would reflect what he described as a war-torn and anxiety-filled world — a mission the prize-winners appear to have fulfilled.