{"id":623877,"date":"2026-09-14T00:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T00:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623877\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T00:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T00:24:16","slug":"danish-drama-woman-unknown-wins-venice-golden-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623877\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish drama Woman Unknown wins Venice Golden Lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s post-war drama Woman Unknown won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, with its star Mathilde Arcel also taking Best Actress honours in \u2060a rare double victory.<\/p>\n

El-Toukhy was the only woman to solely direct a feature film in the main 21-strong competition line-up, a disparity that drew criticism during the festival and prompted renewed scrutiny of the barriers facing women in cinema.<\/p>\n

Set in the aftermath of World War Two, Woman Unknown follows a housemaid played by Arcel whose past relationship with a German soldier threatens to destroy her future.<\/p>\n

The film unfolds against the backdrop of a newly liberated Denmark, where women accused of fraternising with occupying German forces were often subjected to vigilante justice.<\/p>\n

“To me personally, Woman Unknown is about the female body as a battleground and a public matter. And at the same time, the film tells the tale of women who are invisible, unseen, and voiceless,” el-Toukhy said in her acceptance speech.<\/p>\n

John Malkovich named Best Actor for Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine<\/p>\n

South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong took the runner-up Silver Lion award for Possible Love, while Russian-born filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky won Best Director for DAU, \u200ca hugely ambitious project shot largely in Ukraine before \u2060the ongoing war that has attracted intense scrutiny and controversy.<\/p>\n

Khrzhanovsky, who has renounced his Russian citizenship and is a fierce critic of Moscow, dedicated his prize to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

John Malkovich was named Best Actor for his performance as an ageing, maverick CIA agent in Martin McDonagh’s razor-sharp comedy Wild Horse Nine.<\/p>\n

“I am humbled to be chosen for this award, which has been given to so many wonderful actors,” said Malkovich, speaking via video link from Canada, where he is shooting a new project.<\/p>\n

\"John
\nJohn Malkovich, the star of Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, accepted his Best Actor award via video link from Canada<\/p>\n

The Venice festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big \u200cfavourites for the Oscars.<\/p>\n

However, many of the big studio-backed contenders that once crowded the Venice schedule were absent this year as Hollywood reconsiders how to market its movies and cut costs.<\/p>\n

Gaza in focus<\/p>\n

In a change of tone, the festival offered a \u2060programme steeped in global politics and social upheaval, including NAZA – a hard-hitting documentary by Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor that won the Special Jury Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based on \u200canonymous interviews with 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, the film accuses the Israeli military of routinely approving mass civilian deaths \u2060when they target militants in \u200cGaza.<\/p>\n

Israel has denied the charge.<\/p>\n

The documentary received a record 25-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Thursday – the second year in succession that a film about Gaza has resonated in Venice after The Voice of Hind Rajab, a true-life account of the killing of a Palestinian girl during the war.<\/p>\n

“The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic, \u2060not by accident, but by design,” Abraham said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“We believe that the denial of a crime is what helps it persist.”<\/p>\n

\"Yuval
\nYuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s film NAZA had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday<\/p>\n

St\u00e9phane Briz\u00e9, Coralie Amedeo, and Olivier Gorce received the \u2060Screenplay award for their well-received French workplace drama A Good Little Soldier. <\/p>\n

Malou Khebizi was named as Best Emerging Young Actor for her role in another French production, A Place to Heal.<\/p>\n

Festival director Alberto Barbera has defended the male-dominated line-up this year, insisting that selection decisions were based on artistic merit rather than quotas and urging the industry to do more to help women break into the business.<\/p>\n

\"Malou
\nMalou Khebizi was named as Best Emerging Young Actor for her role in A Place to Heal<\/p>\n

El-Toukhy said female filmmakers continued to face greater difficulties securing financing, limiting budgets, casting opportunities, and, ultimately, access to major festivals.<\/p>\n

The head of the main jury, US actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, has also raised concerns about the issue, but she rejected on Saturday any suggestion that the Golden Lion had been \u200cawarded on gender grounds.<\/p>\n

“I just want to celebrate a brilliantly made movie that I felt was like a laser beam,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n

Sources: Reuters<\/p>\n

Click here for more movie news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s post-war drama Woman Unknown won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-623877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}