On Sept. 7, Gianfranco Rosi's "Sacro Gra" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
The award was chosen by the jury made up of Bernardo Bertolucci who served as president, as well as Andrea Arnold, Renato Berta, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Jiang Wen, Pablo Larraín, Virginie Ledoyen,and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director went to Alexandros Avranas for his film "Miss Violence." Meanwhile, the Jury Grand Prize was awarded to Tsai Ming-Liang's "Straw Dogs."
Other big winners included Elena Cotta ("A Street in Palermo") for Best Actress, while Themis Panou ("Miss Violence") won the Best Actor Award. The awards are also known as the Volpi Cup.
The Golden Osella awards went to Steve Coogan ("Philomena") for Best Screenplay, while "The Police Officer's Wife" won the Special Jury Prize.
The Marcello Mastroianni award for young actor went to Tye Sheridan for his work on "Joe." The Luigi de Laurentis award for Filmmaker of the future went to "White Shadow" by Noaz Deshe.
In the short film competition, the European Short Film Award went to "Houses with Small Windows by Bulent Ozturk.
Recent Golden Lion winners include "Pieta," "Faust," "Somewhere," "Lebanon," "The Wrestler," "Lust, Caution" and "Still Life."
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world and has just celebrated its 70th edition. The festival also celebrated its second annual market where many foreign sales were made this year.
The festival opened on Aug. 28 with Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" and closes with the 3-D film "Amazonia."