Well, in defense of Izzy, The Room Next Door IS a very fine film. I fell happily under its spell and loved what it has to say about life, death, self-determination. And who can ever begrudge seeing the one and only Pedro Almodóvar be given golden things? It’s just that… Considering I do have a few things to say about the jury’s decisions at the 81st Venice Film Festival, announced earlier tonight, let’s better get into it. Best Young...

Pedro Almodovar wins the Golden Lion for The Room Next Door. Brady Corbet wins Best Director for The Brutalist Nicole Kidman wins Best Actress for Babygirl. Vincent Lindon wins Best Actor for The Quiet Son Grand Jury prize goes to Vermiglio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC4sNsAGbSY The rest of the winners can be found at Variety. Nicole Kidman has won the Best Actress award, a bittersweet win as she found out her mother died suddenly at the same time. We wish her all...

To my mind, the two strongest performances for the Best Actress win are Mikey Madison in Anora and Angelina Jolie in Maria. But that doesn't mean that will be how it all turns out. It's just that those are the two strongest performances after Telluride and Venice. Madison, I think, has a slight edge over Jolie because the film itself is such a strong contender, having won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. We're overdue for analyzing the Best Actress...

All 21 films in competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival have screened and, as per tradition, it’s time for guesswork. Now, we know that jury president Isabelle Huppert has taste. Not just because she is ISABELLE HUPPERT, she’s proved herself in this capacity as recently as 2009 in Cannes and delivered a rock-solid slate of winners (including The White Ribbon for the Palme d'Or). So expectations are high and I’m allowing more than a few predicted and personally...

Mark Johnson and I did a quickie podcast to discuss what changed in Telluride. What predictions were moved around, what our general feelings were about the films we saw. Have a listen!