Danish WWII drama wins Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival awarded its top prize on Saturday to a Danish-made drama about a woman trying to hide a wartime relationship with a Nazi – the only feature film with a female director in the competition.

"Unknown Woman" had been a major talking point of the festival due to its subject matter, which has rarely been explored in film, and because director May el-Toukhy was almost alone as a woman director in the event.

Only one other woman – Israel's Rachel Szor, co-director of the chilling documentary "NAZA" about Israel's war on Gaza – was behind the 21 films vying for prizes at the star-studded closing ceremony in Venice.

"'Woman Unknown' is about the female body as a battleground and a public matter. And at the same time, the film tells the tale of women who are invisible, unseen and voiceless," el-Toukhy told the ceremony.

The head of this year's jury, American actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, had questioned the dearth of women-directed films on the opening day.

"There's a systemic problem," she told reporters.

Other winners

The prize ceremony on Saturday wrapped up 10 days of often dark, disturbing programming that chief organiser Alberto Barbera had promised would echo the war-torn and anxiety-filled state of the world.

Read moreIsraeli-made film about use of AI for mass killing in Gaza gets record ovation at Venice premiere

The second-place Silver Lion went to "Possible Love", a poignant relationship study by South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong, which was one of the most highly praised movies of the festival.

The best director prize went to Russian-born Ilya Khrzhanovsky for his vast, riotous and experimental cinema project "DAU" that chronicles the life of the troubled father of the Soviet nuclear programme, Lev Landau.

The over three-hour film began two decades ago and involved 2,000 people, many of them actors who lived for months in character on a full-scale reconstruction of a secret Soviet research institute as Khrzhanovsky filmed.

"Not everyone believed that the movie will be finished, but I always believed," he told the audience, while dedicating the prize to the people of Ukraine "who are fighting in this terrible war for their freedom".

The best actor award went to John Malkovich for his role as a jaded CIA agent in dark comedy "Wild Horse Nine," which sees him take a break with a colleague on Easter Island in Chile ahead of the 1973 US-backed military coup there.

Film magazine Variety said Malkovich was "drumming up awards buzz" and tipped him for a possible first best actor Oscar at the next awards ceremony.

Read moreOnly woman director in Venice Film Festival says industry remains unequal

Best actress was picked up by Denmark's Mathilde Arcel who was cast in her first film role in "Woman Unknown".

She plays a bride-to-be who is desperately trying to hide the shame of a past relationship with a Nazi during occupied Denmark.

"If it's a dream I really don't want to wake up," she told the audience as she clutched her prize tearfully on stage.

Gaza film

"NAZA", by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Szor, had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday.

It won the a special jury prize instead, an award handed out each year by the jury to recognise an outstanding work.

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In their 80-minute film, Abraham and Szor spoke to 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of civilians.

"The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanisation of Palestinians," Abraham told the audience.

The film was described as an "urgent, gut-punch" by film magazine Screen, while The Hollywood Reporter said it inspired "outrage...indignity as well. Most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime".

The Israeli military has criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers "cannot be verified".