'Before the War' Wins Venice Critics' Week Grand Prize — SkimNews
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- "Before the War" by Paris-based Italian director Tommaso Usberti won both the grand prize and the best producer award at Venice Critics' Week, the only Italian entry in the section dedicated to first works from around the world.
- The film follows Guido, raised in a Northern Italian racist milieu where he earned respect through violence, who becomes attracted to Kosovar immigrant Sonia and finds himself "torn between the world that made him and the one that she is opening up for him."
- Piero Usberti, the director's brother, stars as Guido opposite Luàna Bajrami as Sonia; the drama is being sold internationally by The Party Film Sales.
- The three-person jury — French director Chloé Barreau, Hungarian producer Júlia Berkes, and Italian cultural curator Caterina Mazzucato — praised "intense and vibrant direction," the lead actor's "powerful and expressive talent," and imagery that turns provincial Italy into "the stage for violent passions."
- Shalini Adnani's debut "Our Share of Sand," about a 12-year-old returning to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father, won the audience award.
- Chinese drama "Zoom In, Zoom Out" by Dong Jie, about a video game designer hunting for his missing roommate via a clue hidden in an online game, took the most innovative film prize from a separate jury.
- Colombian fiction-documentary hybrid "The End of Times," co-directed by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas and using AI to explore colonialism and capitalism, won best technical contribution and a special mention.
Why it matters: Critics' Week is a launchpad for debut features, and the combined grand prize and best producer win for "Before the War" gives Usberti — who cast his own brother as lead — both critical validation and international sales traction through The Party Film Sales. The jury specifically singled out silence and sound design as "a battlefield" to explore toxic masculinity, giving the film a platform beyond arthouse festival circles.
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