In Venice the Luigi De Laurentiis award to the French Diop (to which Mereghetti would have given the Golden Lion)
To “Sant’Omer” the prize for the best first work. A film that reports a trial for infanticide, between racism and witchcraft. Awarded by Martone
Venice 07/09/2020 – Venice Film Festival / photo Beescoop / Image in the photo: Mario Martone
The Luigi De Laurentiis prize is also awarded at the Venice Film Festival. An award wanted by his son Aurelio. The prize is known as coming The Lion of the Future – Venice Prize first work “Luigi De Laurentiis”. The first works presented in one of the official or parallel selections can compete.
The prize consists of 100,000 dollars, made available by Filmauro, which every year, since 1999, is awarded and divided equally between the director and the producer.
In this edition it was won by the film “Saint Omer” by Alice Diop which in the Corriere della Sera Paolo Mereghetti defined
the real surprise of this fluctuating edition: affirmed documentary filmmaker, the forty-three year old Alice Diop, French of Senegalese parents, won over the critics (and I hope the jury too) with “Saint Omer”, from the name of the northern town (which, however, is written with a dash) where a trial for infanticide takes place. The defendant is black as well as the young Parisian who came to read up on an upcoming book by her.
The film delves into the motivations behind her mother’s murder of her 15-month-old daughter. For Mereghetti the work deserved the Golden Lion.
The meeting gives in court (the outcome of which we will not know) deals with many themes (machismo, racism, clash of cultures, madness, sense of justice, even witchcraft) but it is above all the strength and direct with which those words come to us that to the film his shocking charge of truth and puts him in the front row for the Golden Lion.
The award was presented by Mario Martone who also spoke about Napoli:
“At a time when Naples is on the brink of cinema, remembering Luigi De Laurentiis is very beautiful because it means remembering a producer who has brought prestige to Italian cinema around the world. And the award wanted by Aurelio De Laurentiis in memory of Luigi is an important support for the first works, which could become Lions of the future. As a Neapolitan I say thanks to Aurelio De Laurentiis also from a football point of view ”.
The jury, chaired by Michelangelo Frammartino, was made up of Jan P. Matuszynski (Poland), Ana Rocha De Sousa (Portugal), Tessa Thompson (USA), Rosalie Varda (France).