Venice Film Festival awards winners: India's Anuparna Roy triumphs, Gaza film The Voice of Hind Rajab suffers shock loss

Venice Film Festival 2025 concluded on Saturday with its award ceremony, where an Indian director also triumphed for the first time ever.

Updated on: Sep 7, 2025, 08:59:46 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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The 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival concluded on Saturday with its awards ceremony. Some of the most acclaimed and celebrated films from around the world competed in the main festival section, as well as the prestigious Orizzonti (Horizons) section.

India's Anuparna Roy won Best Director in the Horizons Section at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.

Indian filmmaker Anuparna Roy created history with a Best Director win for Songs of Forgotten Trees in the Horizons section. It was the only Indian film in contention at the prestigious festival.

In the main competition, where 21 films competed, American indie film Father Mother Sister Brother sprang a surprise by beating favourite The Voice of Hind Rajab for the Golden Lion. The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about the Gaza crisis, had received a 22-minute standing ovation at the festival.

Here are the winners from the two major sections at the festival:

Main Section:

Golden Lion for Best Film - Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch (United States)

Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize - The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia)

Silver Lion award for Best Director - Benny Safdie for The Smashing Machine (United States)

Volpi Cup award for Best Actress - Xin Zhilei for The Sun Rises on Us All (China)

Volpi Cup award for Best Actor - Toni Servillo for La Grazia (Italy)

Best Screenplay - A pied d'oeuvre (At Work) by Valerie Donzelli (France)

Special jury prize - Sotto le Nuvole (Below the Clouds) by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress - Luna Wedler in Silent Friend by Ildiko Enyedi (Switzerland)

Orizzonti Section:

Best Film - En El Camino by David Pablos (Mexico)

Best Director - Anuparna Roy for Songs of Forgotten Trees (India)

Special Jury Prize - Lost Land by Akio Fujimoto (Japan)

Best Actor - Giacomo Covi for A Year of School (Italy)

Best Actress - Benedetta Porcaroli for The Kidnapping of Arabella (Italy)

Best Screenplay - Ana Cristina Barragan for Hiedra (Ecuador)

Best Short Film - Without Kelly by Lovisa Siren (Sweden)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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