The Golden Lion Competition!
Rome, July 23 (EFE).-
Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem will compete together for the Golden Lion at the 83rd Venice Film Festival with Bunker, a psychological thriller directed by French filmmaker Florian Zeller, organizers announced on Thursday.
The film marks the latest collaboration between the Spanish actors and is part of the festival’s official competition, making it eligible for the event’s top prize.
Zeller, whose film “The Father” (2020) won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, directed the thriller, which follows an architect, played by Bardem, who agrees to build a luxury bunker for a technology billionaire.
The lucrative but ethically questionable project gradually strains his relationship with his wife, played by Cruz.
The acclaimed Spanish couple are regular visitors to the Venice Film Festival, where both have previously received major acting awards.
In 2021, Cruz became the first Spanish female actor to win the Volpi Cup for Best Female Actor for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers.”
Bardem has won the Volpi Cup for Best Male Actor twice: first for his performance in Julian Schnabel’s Before “Night Falls” (2000), which also earned him an Academy Award nomination, and again for Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Sea Inside” (2004).
The 83rd Venice Film Festival will be held from Sep. 2 to 12 on the Lido, with honorary Golden Lions set to be presented to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn.
The international jury, chaired by actress and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, will announce the winners on the festival‘s closing day. EFE
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