2012 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS AND LINEUP

Kim Ki Duk's Pieta (South Korea, 2012) won GOLDEN LION at 2012 Venice Film Festival. After detours spent wandering around Europe for "Amen" and gazing navel-ward in "Arirang," Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk is back on home turf and up to familiar tricks with "Pieta," his most commercial pic in years. That said, Asian films featuring brutal violence, rape, animal slaughter and the ingestion of disgusting objects aren't as commercial as they used to be, even if "Pieta" is relatively tame by Kim's extreme standards. Nevertheless, this tidy, ultimately moving thriller about a loan shark who meets a woman claiming to be his mother offers up the director's vintage blend of cruelty, wit and moral complexity.

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (US, 2012) won Best Director and Best Actors for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix at 2012 Venice Film Festival. Paul Thomas Anderson's longtime fascination with souls in extremis achieves a teasing, richly unsettling apotheosis in "The Master." The 1950-set story of a troubled WWII veteran drawn to and repelled by a mysterious community that strikingly resembles the Church of Scientology, the writer-director's typically eccentric sixth feature is a sustained immersion in a series of hypnotic moods and longueurs, an imposing picture that thrillingly and sometimes maddeningly refuses to conform to expectations. Still, with its bravura technique and superbly synched turns from Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Weinstein Co. release should generate robust returns and furious discussion long after its hugely anticipated Sept. 14 bow.

Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Faith (Austria, 2012) won Special Jury Prize at 2012 Venice Film Festival - After exploring the lusty fleshpots of Africa in "Paradise: Love," his divisive examination of sex tourism, Ulrich Seidl is back on home turf in Austria with "Paradise: Faith," but no less willing to challenge auds with startling imagery, ambiguous morality and ruthless black humor. The second part of an interconnected trilogy, this portrait of a middle-aged femme missionary is a bit more accessible than its predecessor, if any film that features masturbation with a crucifix could be called accessible. "Faith" will find congregants at fests, but the trilogy will achieve its true apotheosis on ancillary.

Rama Bursthein's Fill The Void (Israel, 2012) won Best Actress Award for Hadas Yaron at 2012 Venice Film Festival. Problems of reception always arise when religious directors choose to celebrate their communities. With "Fill the Void," Rama Burshtein's impressive debut, there's so much skill on display that auds disinclined to look kindly on pics presenting marriage as a woman's ultimate goal will struggle to find technical faults. Stunningly shot in shallow focus, giving the ladies a soft incandescence, the film looks with great sympathy on a young woman being pressured by her mother to marry her late sister's husband. Sure to generate hours of post-cinema discussion, "Void" will fill seats at fests and targeted art houses.

Olivier Assayas's Something Is In The Air (France, 2012) won Best Screenplay Award at 2012 Venice Film Festival. Made with the bittersweet clarity of hindsight and the assurance of a director in peak form, "Something in the Air" is Olivier Assayas' wise and wistful memory-piece on the revolutionary fervor that suffused his young adulthood. Conjuring the mood and attitudes of 1970s European counterculture with pinpoint detail and nary a shred of naive romanticism, this tender but dispassionate semi-autobiographical drama offers a gentle rebuke to the celebratory spirit of many post-'68 movies, capturing how political zeal gives way to confusion, compromise and a dawning sense of personal identity. Local appreciation will be echoed by a warm reception abroad.

The Marcello Mastroianni prize for best emerging thesp went to young Italo actor Fabrizio Falco for his roles in both Marco Bellocchio's "Dormant Beauty" and Daniele Cipri's "It Was The Son."

"It Was The Son" also scored a nod for best cinematography.
The Lion of the Future for best first work went to Turkish helmer Ali Aydin's "Mold."

Hong Kong helmer Wang Bing took the top nod in the fest's Horizons section dedicated to more cutting-edge works.

2012 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL IN COMPETITION LINEUP 

At Any Price             Rahmin Bahrani             US             2012

Betrayal             Kirill Serebrennikov             Russia             2012

Dormant Beauty  Marcho Bellocchio             Italy             2012

Fill The Void             Rama Burshtein             Israel             2012

It Was The Son            Daniele Cipri     Italy             2012

La Cinquieme Saison Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth             Belgium             2012

Lines of Wellington, The             Valeria Sarmiento             Portugal           2012

Master, The             Paul Thomas Anderson             US             2012

Outrage: Beyond             Takeshi Kitano Japan             2012

Paradise: Faith             Ulrich Seidl     Austria             2012

Passion             Brian De Palma             US             2012

Pieta     Kim Ki Duk      South Korea 2012

Something In The Air             Olivier Assayas             France             2012

Spring Breakers             Harmony Korine             US             2012

Superstar             Xavier Giannoli             France             2012

Thy Womb             Brillante Mendoza             Philippines       2012

To The Wonder             Terrence Malick             US             2012

Un Giorno Speciale             Francesca Comencini             Italy             2012