Venice Loves Lee's 'Lust'

Despite harsh reviews from the trades, Ang Lee won his second Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award for Lust, Caution, just two years after his Brokeback Mountain did. Brian De Palm's controversial Redacted took the Silver Lion, while Todd Haynes received a special jury prize for his unconventional Bob Dylan bio, I'm Not There.

Cate Blanchett, one of the many actors who play Dylan in that film, won the fest's Best Actress, and her Babel husband Brad Pitt nabbed Best Actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Ed Radtke's coming-of-age drama The Speed of Life won the festival's first Queer Lion award, created to honor films that include "accurate portrayals of gay characters". Kenneth Branagh's Sleuth came in second with an "honorable mention".

Other movies that have been crossing the award season radar that took home awards include In the Valley of Elah, The Darjeeling Limited, Atonement and Jonathan Demme's documentary on Jimmy Carter, Man from Plains.

What these early awards mean in the long run remains to be seen, although Tom O'Neil over at Gold Derby sure gives it a try.

Links via LaBiennale.org, Imdb.com, HollywoodReporter.com and GoldDerby.LATimes.com.