After awarding this year’s Golden Lion for best film to Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother,” Venice Film Festival jury president Alexander Payne faced a flurry of questions from journalists about the decision. Many had expected Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which received a tearful 22-minute standing ovation at its premiere and was ultimately awarded the second-place grand jury prize, to be a shoo-in for the festival’s top award.
“That’s the unfair thing of being at a festival, is having to say this is better than that. It’s not,” Payne said diplomatically at a press conference following the awards ceremony on Saturday. “As a jury, we treasure both of those films equally, each for its own reason. And we wish both of those films a long and important life, and we hope that the support of the awards we’ve given tonight will help them, each in its own way.”
He continued: “Look, if we had voted the day before, the day later, it might have been different … As I say, we treasure and value and protect both films equally in our hearts. And if one had to receive one prize [over] the other, it’s for .000001% of having to make some kind of decision.”
