Success at Venice has become a key launchpad for Academy Award campaigns in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last four winners — “Nomadland”, “Joker”, “Roma” and “The Shape of Water” — have all gone on to Oscar success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandemic precautions — including mandatory masks, vaccine passes and 50-percent capacity in the cinemas — continued to take some of the shine off this year’s festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the glamour was certainly back, with a dazzling Hollywood guest list capped by the appearance of Affleck with his old\/new girlfriend Jennifer Lopez to the delight of gossip mags everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

er-ams\/pvh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A timely film about illegal abortions in 1960s France won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion on Saturday, capping a strong night for women including Penelope Cruz and Jane Campion.  Audrey Diwan’s “Happening” arrives just as the abortion debate is raging again over new restrictions in Texas and its decriminalisation in Mexico. “I did this movie with anger, with desire, with my belly, my guts, my heart and my head,” said Diwan, accepting the top prize for her delicately rendered, yet gut-punching drama. It was great year for female filmmakers, with best director going to iconic New Zealand auteur Jane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-destinations","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n