Golden Lion

This article is about the film award. For other uses, see Golden Lion (disambiguation).

The Golden Lion (Italian: Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes.^[1] In 1970, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was introduced, an honorary prize for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.

Golden Lion
Leone d'oro (Italian)
Location	Venice
Country	Italy
Presented by	Venice Film Festival
First award	1949
Currently held by	The Room Next Door (2024)
Website	labiennale.org/cinema

The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark (which was one of the best known symbols of the ancient Republic of Venice).^[2] In 1954, the prize was permanently named the Golden Lion.

History

A Golden Lion trophy

Roberto Rossellini and Mario Monicelli winning the Golden Lion in 1959 for General Della Rovere and The Great War, respectively

The first Golden Lion was awarded in 1949. Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to the Biennale's official website, the hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being given to the radically experimental Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos; the website says that the awards "still had a statute dating back to the fascist era and could not side-step the general political climate. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past".^[3] Fourteen French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than to any other nation. However, there is considerable geographical diversity in the winners. Eight American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well as Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain was the first winning U.S. film not to tie), Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, Todd Phillips, Chloé Zhao, and Laura Poitras.

Although prior to 1980, only three of 21 winners were of non-European origin, since the 1980s, the Golden Lion has been presented to a number of Asian filmmakers, particularly in comparison to the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, which has only been awarded to five Asian filmmakers since 1980. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has been awarded to ten Asians during the same time period, with two of these filmmakers winning it twice. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years during the 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film. Zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 include Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Trần Anh Hùng, Takeshi Kitano, Kim Ki-duk, Jafar Panahi, Mira Nair, and Lav Diaz. Russian filmmakers have won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of the USSR.

To date, 33 of the 54 winners were European men (including Soviet/Russian winners). Since 1949, only seven women have won the Golden Lion for directing: Margarethe von Trotta, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola, Chloé Zhao, Audrey Diwan, and Laura Poitras (though in 1938, German director Leni Riefenstahl won the Festival when its highest award was the Coppa Mussolini). In 2019, Joker became the first movie based on original comic book characters to win the prize.^[4]

Controversies

From 1934 until 1942, the highest award of the festival was the Coppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film. Even though other awards were attributed to Nazi propaganda films, such as Jud Süß (Suss, the Jew), an antisemitic production made at the behest of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, won the festival's Golden Crown^[5][6] award in 1940.^[7][8][9]

Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia

After the end of the WWII during the reestablishment of the festival, The Southerner, directed by Jean Renoir, won the main prize at the 1946 edition. During 1947 and 1948 the equivalent prize for the Golden Lion was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded to Karel Steklý's The Strike in 1947 and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet in 1948.

Winners

These films received the Golden Lions or the major awards of the Venice Film Festival:^[10]

Akira Kurosawa won for Rashomon (1950)

Carl Theodor Dreyer won for Ordet (1946)

Satyajit Ray won for Aparajito (1957)

Michelangelo Antonioni won for Red Desert (1964)

Louis Malle won twice for Atlantic City (1980) and Au revoir les enfants (1987)

John Cassavetes won for Gloria (1980)

Jean-Luc Godard won for First Name: Carmen (1983)

Agnès Varda won for Vagabond (1985)

Zhang Yimou won twice for The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Not One Less (1999)

Jafar Panahi won for The Circle (2000)

Ang Lee won twice for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Lust, Caution (2007)

Jia Zhangke won for Still Life (2006)

Sofia Coppola won for Somewhere (2010)

Pedro Almodóvar won for The Room Next Door (2024)

1940s

Year	Title	Director	Production Country
1949	Manon	Henri-Georges Clouzot	France

1950s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
1950	Justice Is Done	Justice est faite	André Cayatte	France
1951	Rashomon	羅生門	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
1952	Forbidden Games	Jeux interdits	René Clément	France
1953	No award given, the jury was unable to decide the winner and the prize was declared void[11][12]
1954	Romeo and Juliet		Renato Castellani	United Kingdom
1955	Ordet		Carl Theodor Dreyer	Denmark
1956	No award given, the jury was unable to decide the winner and the prize was declared void[13][a]
1957	Aparajito	অপরাজিত	Satyajit Ray	India
1958	Rickshaw Man	無法松の一生	Hiroshi Inagaki	Japan
1959	General Della Rovere	Il generale della Rovere	Roberto Rossellini	France, Italy
	The Great War	La grande guerra	Mario Monicelli

1960s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
1960	Tomorrow Is My Turn	Le Passage du Rhin	André Cayatte	France
1961	Last Year at Marienbad	L'année dernière à Marienbad	Alain Resnais
1962	Family Diary	Cronaca familiare	Valerio Zurlini	Italy
	Ivan's Childhood	Ива́ново де́тство	Andrei Tarkovsky	Soviet Union
1963	Hands over the City	Le mani sulla città	Francesco Rosi	Italy
1964	Red Desert	Il deserto rosso	Michelangelo Antonioni
1965	Sandra	Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa ...	Luchino Visconti
1966	The Battle of Algiers	La battaglia di Algeri	Gillo Pontecorvo	Algeria, Italy
1967	Belle de Jour		Luis Buñuel	France
1968	Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed	Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos	Alexander Kluge	West Germany
1969	No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive[14]

1970s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country	Ref.
1970	No award given, the editions of the festival were not competitive				[15]
1971
1972
1973	No award given, the festival was not organized during these years[b]				[15]
1974
1975
1976
1977	No award given, the festival was not organized this year[c]
1978	No award given, the festival was not organized this year
1979	No award given, this edition of the festival was not competitive				[16]

1980s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
1980	Atlantic City		Louis Malle	Canada, France
	Gloria		John Cassavetes	United States
1981	Marianne and Juliane	Die Bleierne Zeit	Margarethe von Trotta	West Germany
1982	The State of Things	Der Stand der Dinge	Wim Wenders
1983	First Name: Carmen	Prénom Carmen	Jean-Luc Godard	France
1984	A Year of the Quiet Sun	Rok spokojnego słońca	Krzysztof Zanussi	Poland
1985	Vagabond	Sans toit ni loi	Agnès Varda	France
1986	The Green Ray	Le Rayon vert	Éric Rohmer
1987	Au revoir les enfants		Louis Malle	France, West Germany
1988	The Legend of the Holy Drinker	La leggenda del santo bevitore	Ermanno Olmi	Italy, France
1989	A City of Sadness	悲情城市	Hou Hsiao-hsien	Taiwan

1990s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
1990	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead		Tom Stoppard	United Kingdom, United States
1991	Close to Eden	У́рга – территория любви	Nikita Mikhalkov	Soviet Union
1992	The Story of Qiu Ju	秋菊打官司	Zhang Yimou	China
1993	Short Cuts		Robert Altman	United States
	Three Colours: Blue	Trois couleurs: Bleu	Krzysztof Kieślowski	France, Poland
1994	Before the Rain	Пред дождот	Milčo Mančevski	Macedonia
	Vive L'Amour	愛情萬歲	Tsai Ming-liang	Taiwan
1995	Cyclo	Xích lô	Anh Hung Tran	Vietnam, France
1996	Michael Collins		Neil Jordan	Ireland, United Kingdom
1997	Hana-bi	はなび	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
1998	The Way We Laughed	Così ridevano	Gianni Amelio	Italy
1999	Not One Less	一個都不能少	Zhang Yimou	China

2000s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
2000	The Circle	دایره	Jafar Panahi	Iran
2001	Monsoon Wedding		Mira Nair	India
2002	The Magdalene Sisters		Peter Mullan	Ireland, United Kingdom
2003	The Return	Возвращение	Andrey Zvyagintsev	Russia
2004	Vera Drake		Mike Leigh	United Kingdom
2005	Brokeback Mountain		Ang Lee	United States
2006	Still Life	三峡好人	Jia Zhangke	China
2007	Lust, Caution	色，戒	Ang Lee	Taiwan, China, United States
2008	The Wrestler		Darren Aronofsky	United States
2009	Lebanon	לבנון	Samuel Maoz	Israel

2010s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
2010	Somewhere §		Sofia Coppola	United States
2011	Faust §	Фауст	Alexander Sokurov	Russia
2012	Pietà	피에타	Kim Ki-duk	South Korea
2013	Sacro GRA		Gianfranco Rosi	Italy
2014	A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence	En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron	Roy Andersson	Sweden
2015	From Afar	Desde allá	Lorenzo Vigas	Venezuela
2016	The Woman Who Left	Ang Babaeng Humayo	Lav Diaz	Philippines
2017	The Shape of Water		Guillermo del Toro	United States, Mexico
2018	Roma		Alfonso Cuarón	Mexico, United States
2019	Joker		Todd Phillips	United States

2020s

Year	English Title	Original Title	Director(s)	Production Country
2020	Nomadland		Chloé Zhao	United States
2021	Happening §	L'Événement	Audrey Diwan	France
2022	All the Beauty and the Bloodshed		Laura Poitras	United States
2023	Poor Things		Yorgos Lanthimos	Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
2024	The Room Next Door	La habitación de al lado	Pedro Almodóvar	Spain

Notes

^§ Denotes unanimous win

Multiple winners

Four directors have won the award twice:

• André Cayatte (1950 & 1960)
• Louis Malle (1980 & 1987)
• Zhang Yimou (1992 & 1999)
• Ang Lee (2005 & 2007)

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

Main article: Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

Marcello Mastroianni receiving the prize in 1990

Steven Spielberg receiving the prize from Gillo Pontecorvo in 1993

Martin Scorsese receiving the prize from Monica Vitti, 1995

Omar Sharif receiving the prize in 2003

Year	Winner(s)
1970	Orson Welles
1971	Ingmar Bergman, Marcel Carné, and John Ford
1972	Charlie Chaplin, Anatoli Golovnya and Billy Wilder
1982	Alessandro Blasetti, Luis Buñuel, Frank Capra, George Cukor, Jean-Luc Godard, Sergei Yutkevich, Alexander Kluge, Akira Kurosawa, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, King Vidor, and Cesare Zavattini
1983	Michelangelo Antonioni
1985	Manoel de Oliveira, John Huston, and Federico Fellini
1986	Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
1987	Luigi Comencini and Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1988	Joris Ivens
1989	Robert Bresson
1990	Marcello Mastroianni and Miklós Jancsó
1991	Mario Monicelli and Gian Maria Volonté
1992	Jeanne Moreau, Francis Ford Coppola, and Paolo Villaggio
1993	Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro, Roman Polanski, and Claudia Cardinale
1994	Al Pacino, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, and Ken Loach
1995	Woody Allen, Monica Vitti, Martin Scorsese, Alberto Sordi, Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe De Santis, Goffredo Lombardo, and Alain Resnais
1996	Robert Altman, Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman, and Michèle Morgan
1997	Gérard Depardieu, Stanley Kubrick, and Alida Valli
1998	Warren Beatty, Sophia Loren, and Andrzej Wajda
1999	Jerry Lewis
2000	Clint Eastwood
2001	Éric Rohmer
2002	Dino Risi
2003	Dino De Laurentiis and Omar Sharif
2004	Stanley Donen and Manoel de Oliveira
2005	Hayao Miyazaki and Stefania Sandrelli
2006	David Lynch
2007	Tim Burton and Bernardo Bertolucci (for the last 75 years of the history of cinema)
2008	Ermanno Olmi
2009	John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich
2010	John Woo
2011	Marco Bellocchio
2012	Francesco Rosi
2013	William Friedkin
2014	Thelma Schoonmaker and Frederick Wiseman
2015	Bertrand Tavernier
2016	Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jerzy Skolimowski
2017	Jane Fonda and Robert Redford
2018	David Cronenberg and Vanessa Redgrave
2019	Julie Andrews and Pedro Almodóvar
2020	Ann Hui and Tilda Swinton[17]
2021	Roberto Benigni and Jamie Lee Curtis
2022	Catherine Deneuve[18] and Paul Schrader[19]
2023	Liliana Cavani and Tony Leung Chiu-wai[20][21]
2024	Peter Weir and Sigourney Weaver[22][23]
2025	Werner Herzog[24]

See also

• Film portal

• Leone d'Argento (Silver Lion)
• Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival
• Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded at the Berlin Film Festival

Notes

1. There was a tie between The Burmese Harp (ビルマの竪琴) by Kon Ichikawa (Japan) and Calle Mayor by Juan Antonio Bardem (Spain) and the international jury was unable to decide the winner, the prize was declared void
2. Even though a cinema section within the Biennale was organized with "proposals for new films", tributes, retrospectives, conventions, and some screenings.
3. Even though an event integrated into the Biennale project on "cultural dissent" focused on cinema in Eastern Europe took place.