Venice (AFP)
Chloé Zhao's film "Nomadland" won the Golden Lion in Venice on Saturday, awarded by the jury of the 77th Mostra chaired by Australian actress Cate Blanchett.
The 38-year-old American director of Chinese origin is the first woman to receive this prestigious award since Sofia Coppola, another American, in 2010 with "Somewhere".
The film, one of the few American productions presented this year in Venice, features two Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand, in the role of a broken woman who leaves everything to live on the road.
This melancholy road trip is a plunge into the world of "van dwellers" ("inhabitants of caravans"), those Americans who live in their converted vehicle, doing odd jobs.
They meet in community, at random on their route, or on social networks (#vanlife).
The film will be released on December 30 in France.
The Grand Jury Prize went to "Nuevo Orden" by Michel Franco (Mexico), and the Silver Lion for Best Director went to Japanese Kiyoshi Kurosawa for "The sacrificed lovers".
On the performer side, the Briton Vanessa Kirby, who became known for her role as Princess Margaret in the series "The Crown", is crowned for her first title role at the cinema in "Pieces of a woman" by Hungarian Kornel Mundruczo.
She plays a woman whose life is turned upside down when her home birth goes wrong.
Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino has been honored for his role as a top Italian official targeted by a terrorist attack during the "lead years" in Claudio Noce's "Padrenostro".
© 2020 AFP