Audrey Diwan’s L’Événement (Happening) took out the top gong, while the runner-up honour went to Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s semi-autobiographical, The Hand of God, about his youth in the gritty southern city of Naples.
“I did this movie with anger, with desire, with my belly, my guts, my heart and my head,” Diwan said, accepting the top prize for her timely film.
In a female-focused event, best director went to iconic New Zealand auteur Jane Campion for her emotionally complex Western, The Power of the Dog, starring English actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Best screenplay award went to Maggie Gyllenhaal for her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, which is an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel and stars British Oscar-winner Olivia Colman.
Spanish star Penelope Cruz won the best actress for her role in Parallel Mothers, which explores the trauma of the 1930s Spanish civil war alongside the tale of two mothers sharing a maternity ward.
The best actor award went to Philippines star John Arcilla for crime thriller, On the Job: The Missing 8.
The festival closed with The Last Duel, a medieval jousting drama starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
It was a strong finish for the glamorous festival on Venice’s beachfront Lido, which came alive this year after a low-key event in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Diwan is the sixth woman to have directed a Golden Lion-winning film.
Others include Chloe Zhao, Margarethe Von Trotta and Agnes Varda.
