The 74th Venice Film Festival: the winners announced

The 74th Venice Film Festival ran its course on the Lido with its usual mix of red-carpet spectacle and industry maneuvering. The official awards that emerged on September 9, 2017, reflected a jury headed by Annette Bening and a program that opened with Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. The list of winners still reads as a snapshot of late-summer prestige cinema, and the festival’s own archives keep every category intact.

Jury and Festival Context

Annette Bening presided over the main competition jury. The event itself opened August 30 and closed September 9, 2017. Those dates placed the Lido screenings squarely between the tail end of summer releases and the start of fall festival season, giving distributors a clear runway before awards chatter intensified in Los Angeles and New York.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Jane Fonda and Robert Redford each received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Their presentations sat outside the competitive slate yet underscored the festival’s tradition of honoring screen legends whose careers had shaped both studio and independent eras. The nods arrived at a moment when both actors remained active in new projects, giving the tributes a timely rather than purely archival feel.

In Competition

Golden Lion: The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro Grand Jury Prize: Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz Silver Lion for Best Director: Xavier Legrand, Custody Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Charlotte Rampling, Hannah Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Kamel El Basha, The Insult Best Screenplay: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh Special Jury Prize: Sweet Country, Warwick Thornton Marcello Mastroianni Award for Young Performer: Charlie Plummer, Lean on Pete. Annette Bening chaired the jury that selected these titles, and the event dates August 30 to September 9, 2017, framed the screenings.

Horizons (Orizzonti)

Best Film: Nico, 1988, Susanna Nicchiarelli Best Director: Vahid Jalilvand, No Date, No Signature Special Jury Prize: Caniba, Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor Best Actress: Lyna Khoudri, Les bienheureux Best Actor: Navid Mohammadzadeh, No Date, No Signature Best Screenplay: Oblivion Verses, Alireza Khatami, Dominique Wellinski and Rene Ballesteros Best Short Film: Gros chagrin, Céline Devaux.

Lion of the Future

Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film: Custody, Xavier Legrand.

Venice Classics

Best Documentary on Cinema: The Prince and the Dybbuk, Elvira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski Best Restored Film: Come and See. The restored print of Elem Klimov’s 1985 war film stood out for its uncompromising depiction of occupied Belarus, and the section continued its role of resurfacing landmark titles for new audiences.

Virtual Reality Competition

Best Virtual Reality: Arden’s Wake (Expanded), Eugene Y.K. Chung Best Virtual Reality Experience: La Camera Isabbiata, Laurie Anderson and Hsin-chien Huang Best Virtual Reality Story: Bloodless, Gina Kim.

Legacy of the Golden Lion Winner

The Shape of Water went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018. That trajectory mirrored earlier Venice-to-Oscars paths, yet the film’s blend of genre and romance still marked a distinct win for the Lido jury at the time.

Venice Film Festival in 2026

The 83rd edition is scheduled for September 2-12, 2026. The dates place the event in the same late-summer window that has defined the festival for decades, though programming priorities and market dynamics will inevitably shift before then.