‘Poor Things’: From Golden Lion at Venice to golden Oscars?
Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “Poor Things” just moved to the top tier of Oscar contenders with a big win at the Venice Film Festival. It picked up the top prize, the Golden Lion, on September 9. That recognition came just eight days after it debuted on the rialto to rave reviews. The last American feature to win over the jury here was “Nomadland” four years ago. That flick went to sweep the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director (Chloe Zhang) and a third Best Actress award for Frances McDormand.
“Poor Things” tells the tale of a young woman (Emma Stone) brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist (Willem Dafoe) who is then pursued by a millionaire (Mark Ruffalo). Stone, who reaped an Oscar bid for her first collaboration with Lanthimos on “The Favourite,” is the current frontrunner in our odds for Best Actress. She won that award back in 2017 for “La La Land,” which was written and directed by this year’s festival jury head Damien Chazelle. And her co-star in “The Favourite,” Olivia Colman won Best Actress here before repeating at the Oscars.
One of Stone’s chief Oscar rivals this year could well be Cailee Spaeny, who won Best Actress at Venice for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola‘s “Priscilla.” Coppola helmed the 2010 Golden Lion champ “Somewhere,” which went nowhere awards wise.
However, the more recent American films to win the Golden Lion all proved to be big Oscar contenders. “The Shape of Water” (2017), “Roma” (2018) and “Joker” (2019) each won multiple Academy Awards. Last year’s surprise winner at Venice was “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ,” Laura Poitras’ film about activist Nan Goldin, which went on to reap an Oscar bid for Best Documentary Feature.
Best Actor went to Peter Sarsgaard who headlines Michel Franco‘s film “Memory.” This character study, which co-stars recent Oscar champ Jessica Chastain, unspools at TIFF this week. Look for it to pick up US distribution there, buoyed by this big win.
“Poor Things” will be released in the US by Searchlight Pictures on December 8 and A24 is debuting “Priscilla” on November 3.
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