Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar won Venice’s Golden Lion award on Saturday for his pro-euthanasia film The Room Next Door, with the acting prizes going to Nicole Kidman and Frenchman Vincent Lindon.

The female friendship end-of-life film starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore was Almodóvar’s first English-language feature-length film.

In the film − which like many of Almodóvar’s hinges on strong female characters − Swinton plays a war correspondent suffering from terminal cancer. She asks her friend, played by Moore, to be at her side when she takes her own life.

“I believe saying goodbye to this world cleanly and with dignity is a fundamental right of every human being,” Almodóvar told the audience after accepting his award. “It is not a political issue, but a human one.”

He acknowledged that “this right goes against any religion or creed that has God as the only source of life”.

“I would ask practitioners of any creed to respect and not intervene in individual decisions in this regard,” said the prolific director, whose films in recent years have considered themes of death or physical decline.

President of the jury, French actor Isabelle Huppert, said the film tackled important issues thoughtfully and without melodrama. She paid tribute, too, to the performances of the two lead actors.

Almodóvar was honoured by Venice with a career achievement award five years ago.

‘My heart is broken’

Kidman was awarded the best actress award for her fearless turn as a CEO who has an affair with an intern in the erotic thriller Babygirl, but she was unable to collect the prize following the sudden death of her mother.

“My heart is broken,” said the Australian actress in a statement read onstage on her behalf by the film’s Dutch director, Halina Reijn. 

“I’m in shock, and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me, and she made me,” she said.

From left, actors Antonio Banderas, Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson and director Halina Reijn on the red carpet of the movie Babygirl. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Kidman was praised by critics during the 10-day festival for her no-holds-barred performance in the sexually explicit film about female desire and power relationships. 

Veteran French actor Vincent Lindon won the best actor award for The Quiet Son, in which he plays a single father struggling to prevent his teenage son from being swept up in far-right extremism.

He won against well-received performances from former Bond actor Daniel Craig in Queer and Adrien Brody in The Brutalist.

The Grand Jury Prize, considered a runner-up to the Golden Lion, went to Italian film Vermiglio from director Maura Delpero, which dealt with the effects of World War II on an isolated mountain village.

Stars galore

The winners were among 21 contenders vying for the top prize in a festival that swarmed with top Hollywood talent, from Angelina Jolie to George Clooney.

Venice’s red carpet this season saw the likes of Lady Gaga, starring with Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to Todd Phillips’s antihero film Joker, as well as Brad Pitt, whose action comedy Wolfs with Clooney premiered out of competition.

Jolie took on the role of opera diva Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain’s Maria.

Actor George Clooney with his wife Amal on the red carpet of the movie Wolfs presented out of competition during the 81st International Venice Film Festival on September 1. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Films this year did not shy away from difficult subject matter, whether contemporary or historical.

Abortion (April), white supremacy (The Order), the Mafia (Sicilian Letters), and enforced disappearances and killings during Brazil’s military dictatorship (I’m Still Here) were all examined in the main competition films.

Several films explored war and its crushing repercussions, whether documentaries on the war in Ukraine or the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

Among the most controversial was Russians at War from Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, who went behind the lines of the Ukraine war with Russian soldiers.

“Russian soldiers are not someone whose voices are heard,” Trofimova told journalists ahead of the screening.

But the film prompted outrage in Ukrainian cultural and political circles for its inclusion at Venice, with many casting it as a pro-Kremlin film seeking to whitewash Russia’s assault.

The festival also honoured American actress Sigourney Weaver and Australian director Peter Weir with lifetime achievement awards.