The Woman Who Left with the Golden Lion

Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz holds the Golden Lion award for his movie Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) during the award ceremony of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in Italy on Saturday. (Photo: AP)

Philippines film The Woman Who Left, a revenge tale shot in black and white by director Lav Diaz, won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

“I want to dedicate this film to the Filipino people and their struggle, and humanity’s struggle,” Diaz said as he received the award. Holding his Lion aloft, the man behind Melancholia (2008) and Century of Birthing (2011) thanked the jury, lead this year by British director Sam Mendes, who said the 20 films in competition had proved to be of “a wonderful, astonishing variety”.

In The Woman Who Left, a story about the absurdity of human existence, a wrongly convicted schoolteacher plots retribution against the ex-boyfriend who framed her, disguising herself in a bid to get close to her prey.

Best actor went to Argentina’s Oscar Martinez for his portrayal of a cynical Nobel Prize-winning author who returns to his village for the first time in 40 years in the comedy on art and fame, The Distinguished Citizen. US actress Emma Stone received the best actress prize for her depiction of a struggling thespian who falls head over heels in love with a jazz pianist — played by Ryan Gosling — in US musical La La Land.

“I wish I could be there to make sure it’s not an elaborate prank,” quipped Stone in a video message, saying she could “think of no better place in the world than Venice to premier La La Land, we had a wonderful time”. Fashionista-turned-director Tom Ford was awarded the Silver Lion grand jury prize for Nocturnal Animals, a romantic thriller about former lovers starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, with a violent revenge tale told as a story within a story.

The Silver Lion for best director was divided this year between Mexico’s Amat Escalante for The Untamed, about the sex life of a tentacled extraterrestrial creature, and Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky for Holocaust drama Paradise. Jackie, a bio-drama which stars Natalie Portman as the grieving widow of US President John F. Kennedy, meanwhile took best screenplay. Ana Lily Amirpour — dubbed “the new Tarantino” by fans — scooped the special jury prize for her second film Bad Batch, a cannibal love story with Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves about a young girl who ends up on the menu in a futuristic United States.