Jim Jarmusch, Kaouther Ben Hania, Xin Zhilei, Valérie Donzelli… the winners of the Venice Film Festival

At the end of a highly political edition, the 82nd Venice Film Festival awarded Jim Jarmusch's Father, Mother, Sister, Brother on Saturday, September 6. The American independent film about family surprisingly won the Golden Lion.

It's a triptych between New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, carried by a five-star cast (Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, etc.). Very sober in its staging, this feature film, where silences, gestures and glances often count more than dialogue, is intended as a tender reflection on family. A sort of "anti-action film," its 72-year-old director joked.

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During this closing ceremony, marked by numerous gestures and declarations of solidarity with Gaza , the shocking film The Voice of Hind Rajab by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania – which tells the story of the ordeal of a Palestinian girl killed in early 2024 in Gaza – was awarded the Silver Lion, the second most prestigious award.

The Voice of Hind Rajab , which received a 23-minute standing ovation, deeply moved festivalgoers. Its director relied on real recordings of a Palestinian girl's cries for help, which had sparked intense emotion when they were first revealed. Hind Rajab was found dead inside a bullet-riddled car in Gaza City, several days after spending hours on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024.

"Cinema cannot bring Hind back and erase the atrocities committed against her," reacted Kaouther Ben Hania, welcomed to a standing ovation upon receiving her award. But "cinema can preserve her voice […] because her story is not just her own. It is the tragic story of an entire people, a people suffering from a genocide inflicted by a criminal Israeli government that acts with impunity," she insisted.

The festival also named best director to American Benny Safdie, who gave a golden role to Dwayne Johnson, alias The Rock, in The Smashing Machine , about an MMA fighter struggling with addiction.

China's Xin Zhilei received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance as a tormented woman when a former lover reappears in Cai Shangjun's The Sun Rises on Us All .

Italian actor Toni Servillo won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role as a widowed president at the end of his term caught up in moral dilemmas in Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia .

Valérie Donzelli's film A pied d'œuvre , about a photographer who leaves everything to become a writer, won an award for best screenplay.

Gianfranco Rosi's Sotto le nuvole won the Special Jury Prize, while the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Most Promising Actress went to Luna Wedler in Ildikó Enyedi's Silent Friend .