Unifrance warmly congratulates all the French winners at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, in particular actors Vincent Lindon and Paul Kircher, who respectively received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for The Quiet Son, and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor for And Their Children After Them. This is yet another accolade in Paul Kircher's budding career, two years after he won the Silver Concha at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for his performance in Winter Boy.
While the Golden Lion went to Pedro Almodovar for The Room Next Door, his first American film, the Silver Lion was awarded to Vermiglio ou La Mariée des montagnes, a highly acclaimed second feature by filmmaker Maura Delpero, co-produced by France by Charades, and due for release in March 2025 under the Paname Distribution banner.
The Special Jury Prize went to April by Dea Kulumbegashvili (produced by First Picture and sold internationally by Goodfellas), and Best Screenplay was awarded to I'm Still Here by Walter Salles, a minority-French co-production (MACT Productions).
The 2024 awards also marked the endorsement of French VR production, present in the three films awarded this year, Ito Meikyu (Grand Prix), Oto's Planet, and Impulse : Playing With Reality. France was omnipresent in the Venice Immersive selection, with 10 works produced or co-produced. Unifrance congratulates all the artistic teams, production, and distribution companies honored in this list (Sacrebleu Productions, Floréal, Small Creative, Parangon, Unframed Collection), proving once again the excellence of French production in the field of VR and XR.
French films awarded at the 81st Venice Film Festival
- Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Vincent Lindon for The Quiet Son by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin
- Marcello Mastroianni for Best Young Actor: Paul Kircher for And Their Children After Them by Ludovic Boukherma & Zoran Boukherma
- Silver Lion: Vermiglio ou La Mariée des montagnes by Maura Delpero (minority-French co-production)
- Special Jury Prize: April by Dea Kulumbegashvili
- Best Screenplay Award: I'm Still Here by Walter Salles (minority-French co-production)
- Best Screenplay Award - Orizzonti: Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti (minority-French co-production)
- Grand Prix - Venice Immersive: Ito Meikyu by Boris Labbé
- Special Jury Prize - Venice Immersive: Oto's Planet by Gwenaël François
- Venice Immersive Achievement Prize - Venice Immersive: Impulse : Playing With Reality by Barry Gene Murphy & May Abdalla