Performance wins Mirren top award

Dame Helen Mirren was the toast of the showbusiness world today after being crowned best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her majestic performance in The Queen.

The 61 year old plays the British monarch in the film about the Royal Family’s response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

And the actress joked she had glammed up for last night’s awards ceremony because she was desperate not to be mistaken for the real Queen.

In the film she bears a great physical likeness to the monarch, who celebrated her 80th birthday this year, and spends much of the time dressed in sensible tweeds and headscarf.

Referring to her blue evening gown by British designer Eavis and Brown, topped off with glittering Bulgari diamonds, Dame Helen joked: “After playing the Queen, I’m desperate not to look like the Queen. Desperate. It’s pathetic.

“I just want everyone to look at me and go, ’How could she be the Queen? She doesn’t look anything like her!’ So it’s been a lot of effort.”

Dame Helen was accompanied to the ceremony on the Venice Lido by her film director husband Taylor Hackford.

The Queen also picked up a best scriptwriter award for Peter Morgan.

His script shows the Queen struggling to understand the national outpouring of grief which greeted Diana’s death in 1997.

A newly-elected Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) is more in tune with the public mood and tries to persuade the Royals to make their grieving public.

Accepting his award, Morgan quipped: “Thank you, Tony Blair, for timing your political disintegration with the release of our film.”

There was disappointment as The Queen was passed over for the Golden Lion prize for best film.

That went instead to the Chinese entry Sanxia Haoren (Still Life), directed by Jia Zhang-Ke.

A late entry to the competition, the film about China’s Three Gorges Dam was a surprise choice and many critics have yet to see it.

It was one of two winners at the festival to raise eyebrows.

The other was Ben Affleck as best actor for his role in Hollywoodland.

Affleck, 34, plays George Reeves, who found fame in 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman.

The actor did not attend the ceremony but sent a message of thanks from Los Angeles via his Blackberry.

Other winners include When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Spike Lee’s devastating film about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which was named best documentary.

Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron’s film set in a dystopian London and starring Clive Owen, won a technical award for best cinematography.

Dame Helen was introduced on stage as “Her Majesty Helen Mirren” and gave the audience a joke curtsey.

Asked afterwards if she had any idea what the Queen would think of her win, Dame Helen replied: “There is no point speculating about it because we absolutely don’t know.

“But there is a very good Royal biographer called Robert Lacey, who was asked the same question earlier this week and I suspect his answer is the closest to the truth.

“He said that she will probably say, ’Well, that could have been worse. Could I have a gin and tonic, please?”’

The Prime Suspect star’s win in Venice is a huge boost for her chances of Oscar glory.

She said: “Awards are wonderful, no doubt. And it’s very important for us here in Venice because this is the first time our film has been shown to the public so it’s wonderful to be received well.”

Accepting her award on stage, she told the audience: “It’s always terrifying to send your movie out for its first little toddling steps. It’s an incredible honour to have a film take its first steps here at the Venice Film Festival.”

The jury was chaired by veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve, who said Dame Helen had been a unanimous choice.

Although the jury had endeavoured to remain impartial, she said, it could not help but be swayed by the buzz her performance had created among critics and audiences.

“I think in Venice, you can see it everywhere,” she said. “You try to avoid the press and people who have seen the film, but it is something that has overcome everything, and that’s why this was a very easy choice for us.”

While Dame Helen had been widely expected to pick up the prize, Ben Affleck was a more surprising choice.

The 34-year-old actor has seen his career take a dive in recent years with a string of flops including Daredevil, Jersey Girl and Gigli, the latter with his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.

But Hollywoodland, which co-stars Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins, represents his comeback.

In his thank you message, Affleck said he was “surprised, flattered and honoured“.

British writer-director Daniel Elliott won the Best European Short Film for his 21-minute offering The Making of Parts.

Elliott, 35, from Hexham, Northumberland, studied film at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This is his third short film.

It explores the themes of loneliness and sexual frustration felt by a married man in his late 50s.

The lead role was played by Polish actor Jerzy Stuhr, who appeared in Three Colours White, and who travelled to Newcastle to shoot the film.

In his acceptance speech, Elliott said: “I have to say a big thank you to Jerzy Stuhr for flying all the way across to Newcastle to make this film.

“Apologies for the budget airline – it’s a short film.”

Afterwards, Elliott said: “It feels fantastic that people like my work.

“Just getting selected for Venice was a great thing but to get this award obviously is even better.

“I knew Jerzy was a brilliant actor who I thought would be ideal for this role. So I managed to track him down and persuade him to do it, for which I’m very grateful.”

Elliott is now working on two longer-length features.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

Her majestic performance in The Queen won Dame Helen Mirren the best actress at the Venice Film Festival.

The other winners at last night’s awards ceremony were, according to the festival’s official website:

GOLDEN LION for Best Film: Sanxia Haoren (Still Life) by Jia Zhang-Ke;

SILVER LION for Best Director: Alain Resnais for the film Private Fears in Public Places;

SILVER LION REVELATION: Emanuele Crialese for the film Nuovomondo – Golden Door;

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Daratt by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun;

COPPA VOLPI for Best Male Actor: Ben Affleck in the film Hollywoodland by Allen Coulter;

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best Young Actor: Isild Le Besco in the film L’intouchable by Benoît Jacquot;

OSELLA for Best Technical Contribution: Emmanuel Lubezki, Director of Photography for the film Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron;

OSELLA for Best Screenplay: Peter Morgan for the film The Queen by Stephen Frears;

SPECIAL LION: Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet for innovation in the language of cinema;

HORIZONS PRIZE to: Mabei shang de fating by Liu Jie;

HORIZONS DOC PRIZE to: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts by Spike Lee;

LION OF THE FUTURE: Premio Venezia Opera Prima “Luigi De Laurentiis” to Khadak by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth;

CORTO CORTISSIMO LION for Best Short Film to: Comment on freine dans une descente? by Alix Delaporte;

PRIX UIP for Best European Short Film to: The Making of Parts by Daniel Elliott;

SPECIAL MENTION to the film Adults Only by Yeo Joon Han;