Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (roundup) has won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. Bloomberg reports that jury president Quentin Tarantino assures us that this was a unanimous decision: "This film enchanted us from its first screening. Yet from that first enchanting screening, it grew and grew and grew in both our hearts, in our analysis, in our minds, and in our affections."
The Silver Lion goes to Álex de la Iglesia's A Sad Trumpet Ballad, which also wins Best Screenplay (written by Álex de la Iglesia).
A Special Prize is awarded to Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing (roundup), which also picks up the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor: Vincent Gallo.
Ariane Labed has won the Best Actress award for her performance in Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg.
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) presents its prize this year to Aleksei Fedorchenko's Silent Souls.
The Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress goes to Mila Kunis for her performance in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.
Osella for Best Cinematography: Mikhail Krichman for Silent Souls.
Then a Special Lion for an Overall Work has been presented to Monte Hellman, "a great cinema artist and minimalistic poet. His work has inspired this jury and it’s our honor to honor him."
The Lion of the Future, or the Luigi De Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film, presented by a jury headed up by Fatih Akin, goes to Seren Yüce, whose Majority screened in Venice Days.
Shirin Neshat's chaired the Orizzonti jury, presenting the first prize to Nicolás Pereda for Summer of Goliath (see Daniel Kasman's review in the previous entry here in The Daily Notebook) and a Special Orizzonti Jury Prize to Noël Burch and Allan Sekula for The Forgotten Space. The Orizzonti award for best short film goes to Peter Tscherkassky for Coming Attractions; for best medium-length film to Roee Rosen for Tse (Out). Special Mention: Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas for Jean Gentil.
Eric J Lyman in the Hollywood Reporter: "Bertrand Blier's Le Bruit des Glacons (The Clink of the Ice; roundup) won the Europa Cinemas award for the best film in the Venice Days sidebar, while En el futuro (In the Future), from Argentina's Mauro Andrizzi, won the festival Queer Lion honor." Also, Richard J Lewis's Barney's Version (roundup) has won the Leoncino d'Oro (The Golden Lion Cub), selected by local school kids.
Updates, 9/12: As Mike Collett-White and Silvia Aloisi report for Reuters, Tarantino is having to respond to charges of favoritism (he and Coppola were once an item and Monte Hellman's a friend and mentor) as well as outright bad judgment (Gallo doesn't speak a word in Essential Killing and Sad Trumpet Ballad has been widely panned). Tarantino's brushed off all accusations.
"In Tarantino's universe, everything is the opposite of things in our universe." For the Financial Times' Nigel Andrews, there can be no other explanation for most of these awards.
Update, 9/13: J Hoberman, blogging for the Voice: "Some years back, Tarantino had articulated a highly personal form of cinephilia in presenting Coppola with the Best Director award at the annual New York Film Critics Circle dinner, characterizing her Lost in Translation, an earlier version of Somewhere, as his favorite movie of the year: 'At some point, I got a crush on the movie. I've seen it five times and every time I've seen it' — delighted snicker — 'I've had a little date with myself!' Basta per favore!"
Coverage of the coverage: Venice 2010. For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow The Daily Notebook on Twitter and/or the RSS feed.