Golden Lion

Name	Golden Lion (Leone d’Oro)
Presenter	Venice Film Festival
Country	Italy
Location	Venice
Year	1949

Il Leone d’Oro () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.

The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of St. Mark (the winged lion which had appeared on the flag of the Venetian Republic). Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. Before that, from 1934 until 1942, the highest awards were the Coppa Mussolini (Mussolini Cups) for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film.

No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to the Biennale's official website, this hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being awarded to the radically experimental ; the website says that the awards "still had a statute dating back to the fascist era and could not side-step the general political climate. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past."

Grand International Prize of Venice

{|class="wikitable" !Year!!Title!!Director |- | 1947 ||Siréna ||Karel Stekly |- | 1948 ||Hamlet || Laurence Olivier |}

Golden Lion

14 French films have been awarded the Golden Lion more than that of any other nation. Of note is that Golden Lion awards tend to be presented to European men: 33 of the 54 winners were European men (including Soviet/Russian winners). However most of this bias is from before 1980: before this year only 3 of 21 winners were non-European. Since 1949 only a few women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing, Indian-born Mira Nair, U.S. born Sofia Coppola, German Margarethe von Trotta and Belgium's Agnès Varda, who both won more than two decades ago. Although numerous Americans have won honorary awards at the festival, Americans have only won the Golden Lion four times, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well as Darren Aronofsky (the first sole American to win the award) and Sofia Coppola.

{|class="wikitable" !Year!!Title!!Director!!Country of origin |- | 1949 ||Manon || Henri-Georges Clouzot || * |- | 1950 ||Justice Is Done (Justice est faite) || André Cayatte || |- | 1951 ||Rashōmon || Akira Kurosawa || * |- | 1952 ||Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits)|| René Clément || |- |1953 || colspan="3" | No award |- | 1954 ||Romeo and Juliet || Renato Castellani || * |- | 1955 ||The Word (Ordet) ||Carl Theodor Dreyer || |- | 1956 || colspan="3" | No award |- | 1957 ||The Unvanquished (Aparajito) || Satyajit Ray || * |- |1958 ||Rickshaw Man (Muhomatsu no issho) ||Hiroshi Inagaki || |- | 1959 ||General della Rovere (Il generale della Rovere) (tie) The Great War (La grande guerra)'' (tie) || Roberto RosseliniMario Monicelli || |- | 1960 ||The Crossing of the Rhine (Le passage du Rhin) || André Cayatte || |- | 1961 ||Last Year in Marienbad (L'année dernière à Marienbad) || Alain Resnais || |- | 1962 ||Family Diary (Cronaca familiare) (tie) Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) (tie)|| Valerio Zurlini Andrei Tarkovsky || * |- | 1963 ||Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città) || Francesco Rosi || |- | 1964 ||Red Desert (Il deserto rosso) || Michelangelo Antonioni || |- | 1965 ||Sandra of a Thousand Delights (Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa) ||Luchino Visconti || |- | 1966 ||The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri) || Gillo Pontecorvo || |- | 1967 ||Beauty of the Day (Belle de jour) || Luis Buñuel || |- | 1968 || ||Alexander Kluge || * |- | 1969-79 || colspan="3" align="center" | No award |- | 1980 || Atlantic City (tie)Gloria (tie) || Louis MalleJohn Cassavetes || */* |- | 1981 ||Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit) || Margarethe von Trotta || |- | 1982 ||The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge) || Wim Wenders || |- | 1983 || || Jean-Luc Godard || |- | 1984 ||The Year of the Quiet Sun (Rok spokojnego slonca) || Krzysztof Zanussi || * |- | 1985 ||Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) || Agnès Varda || |- | 1986 ||The Green Ray (Le rayon vert) || Éric Rohmer || |- | 1987 ||Au revoir, les enfants || Louis Malle || |- | 1988 ||The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore) || Ermanno Olmi || |- | 1989 ||A City of Sadness (Bei qing cheng shi) || Hou Hsiao-Hsien || * |- | 1990 ||Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead || Tom Stoppard || */ |- | 1991 ||Urga || Nikita Mikhalkov || * |- | 1992 ||The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si) || Zhang Yimou || |- | 1993 || Short Cuts (tie) (tie) ||Robert AltmanKrzysztof Kieślowski || / |- | 1994 ||Vive L'Amour (Ai qing wan sui) (tie)Before the Rain (tie)|| Tsai Ming-liangMilčo Mančevski || * |- | 1995 ||Cyclo (Xich lo) || Anh Hung Tran || - |- | 1996 ||Michael Collins || Neil Jordan || * |- | 1997 ||Fireworks (Hana-bi) || Takeshi Kitano || |- | 1998 ||The Way We Laughed (Così ridevano) || Gianni Amelio || |- | 1999 ||Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao) || Zhang Yimou || |- | 2000 ||The Circle (Dayereh) || Jafar Panahi || * |- | 2001 ||Monsoon Wedding || Mira Nair || ////* |- | 2002 ||The Magdalene Sisters || Peter Mullan || |- | 2003 ||The Return (Vozvrashcheniye) || Andrey Zvyagintsev || |- | 2004 ||Vera Drake || Mike Leigh || |- | 2005 ||Brokeback Mountain || Ang Lee || |- | 2006 ||Still Life (Sanxia haoren) || Jia Zhangke || |- | 2007 ||Lust, Caution (Se, jie) || Ang Lee || // |- | 2008 ||The Wrestler || Darren Aronofsky || |- | 2009 ||Lebanon || Samuel Maoz || * |- | 2010 ||Somewhere || Sofia Coppola || |}

*_{denotes first win}

Golden Lion – Honorary Award

{|class="wikitable" !Year!!Winner(s) |- | 1970 ||Orson Welles |- | 1971 ||Ingmar Bergman, Marcel Carné, Charles Aznavour and John Ford |- | 1972 ||Charles Chaplin, Anatoly Golovnya and Billy Wilder |- | 1982 ||Alessandro Blasetti, Luis Buñuel, Frank Capra, George Cukor, Jean-Luc Godard, Sergei Yutkevich, Alexander Kluge, Akira Kurosawa, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, King Vidor and Cesare Zavattini |- |1983 ||Michelangelo Antonioni |- | 1985 ||Manoel de Oliveira, John Huston and Federico Fellini |- | 1986 ||Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani |- | 1987 ||Luigi Comencini and Joseph L. Mankiewicz |- | 1988 ||Joris Ivens |- | 1989 ||Robert Bresson |- | 1990 ||Marcello Mastroianni and Miklos Jancso |- | 1991 ||Mario Monicelli and Gian Maria Volonté |- | 1992 ||Jeanne Moreau, Francis Ford Coppola and Paolo Villaggio |- | 1993 ||Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro, Roman Polanski and Claudia Cardinale |- | 1994 ||Al Pacino, Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Ken Loach |- | 1995 ||Woody Allen, Monica Vitti, Martin Scorsese, Alberto Sordi, Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe de Santis, Goffredo Lombardo and Alain Resnais |- | 1996 ||Robert Altman, Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman and Michèle Morgan |- | 1997 ||Gerard Depardieu, Stanley Kubrick and Alida Valli |- | 1998 ||Warren Beatty, Sophia Loren and Andrzej Wajda |- | 1999 ||Jerry Lewis |- | 2000 ||Clint Eastwood and Éric Rohmer |- | 2002 ||Dino Risi |- | 2003 ||Dino De Laurentiis and Omar Sharif |- | 2004 ||Stanley Donen and Manoel de Oliveira |- | 2005 ||Hayao Miyazaki and Stefania Sandrelli |- | 2006 ||David Lynch |- | 2007 ||Tim Burton |- | 2008 ||Ermanno Olmi |- | 2009 ||John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich |- | 2010 ||John Woo |}

Repeat winners

André Cayatte (1950; 1960) Louis Malle (1980; 1987) Zhang Yimou (1992; 1999) Ang Lee (2005; 2007)

See also

Leone d’Argento (Silver Lion)

Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival

Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded at the Berlin Film Festival

References

External links

La Biennale di Venezia official website

Category:Italian film awards Category:Lists of films by award Category:International film awards Category:Venice Film Festival Category:Awards established in 1949