Colin Farrell wins the Best Actor Award at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
Farrell won an award for playing a man who has broken up with a longtime friend in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin.
“I’m shocked and thrilled to get this,” Pharrell said in a live video message broadcast at the festival on Saturday night.
McDonagh was on site to collect prizes before he took his own for the screenplay.
The film was shot in Inishmore and Achill Island and also stars Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan.
Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for playing the famous conductor in Todd Field’s The Tar.
Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, which chronicles the actions of photographer Nan Goldin and her Sackler family, won the Golden Lion for best film at the festival.
A jury, led by Julianne Moore, selects winners from 23 films, including many Oscar nominees. The Oscar winner presided over a jury that included French director Audrey Diwan, writer Kazuo Ishiguro and Iranian actor Leila Hatami, whose film The Happening won last year’s Golden Lion award.
The main jury also included Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo and Argentinian filmmakers Mariano Cohn and Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Its premiere in competition in Venice has launched many successful Oscar campaigns in recent years, leading to nominations and awards.
Best Director Oscar has starred in films that have world premiered at the festival seven times in the last nine years, including Chloë Zhao, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G Inarritu, twice, Guillermo del Toro and Damien Chazelle.
It also debuted several future Best Picture winners, including Nomadland, The Shape of Water, and Birdman.
