Romanian production Imaculat, directed by Monica Stan and George Chiper-Lillemark, was awarded the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film at this year’s Venice International Film Festival.

It received the award from a jury chaired by Uberto Pasolini and comprised of Martin Schweighofer and Amalia Ulman.

The Golden Lion for Best Film went to Audrey Diwan’s L’événement (Happening), where French-Romanian actress Anamaria Vartolomei holds the lead role.

It received the award from a jury chaired by Bong Joon Ho and comprised of Saverio Costanzo, Virginie Efira, Cynthia Erivo, Sarah Gadon, Chloé Zhao, and Alexander Nanau, whose documentary about the journalistic investigation that followed the fire at Colectiv club in Bucharest in October 2015 received two Oscar nominations earlier this year.

The Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize went to Paolo Sorrentino’s È Stata La Mano Di Dio (The Hand of God), while Penélope Cruz received the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers) and John Arcilla the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for the role in Erik Matti’s On The Job: The Missing 8.

The list of the awards of the 78th Venice Film Festival is available here.

(Photo: Adriano Castelli/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com