Venice 2023: “Poor Creatures” by Yorgos Lanthimos with the Golden Lion!

Two Polish films participated in the main competition: “The Green Border” by Agnieszka Holland and “The Woman From…” by Malgorzata Szomovska and Mikale Englert. They competed for the Golden Lion award with masters of contemporary cinema, including: Yorgos Lanthimos, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Ryosuke Hamaguchi, Matteo Garrone, David Fincher, and Michel Franco.

The Golden Lion award went to director Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Creatures. Previously, the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize went to “Evil Does Not Exist” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

On receiving the statuette, Lanthimos thanked the jurors. “I know how difficult this work is. I would also like to thank the festival for its enthusiastic approach to Poor Creatures and its interest in it from the beginning. It took several years for the world, or rather the film industry, to be ready for this film and to be able to shoot it,” Alasdair offered us. Gray is an amazing novel that was ahead of its time. Thank you to the writer Tony McNamara, the entire crew and the amazing cast. I hope we can celebrate. He pointed out that the main character in this film is Bella Baxter, an amazing creature who would not have existed without Emma Stone, who is another amazing being.

“Poor Things” by director Giorgos Lanthimos is a stunning story of the development of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by a brilliant and unconventional scientist, Dr. Goodwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

Under his care, Bella willingly learns everything from scratch, but also wants to experience life to the fullest. In search of new experiences, he embarks on a turbulent, adventurous journey across continents in the company of the smart and cunning lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Freed from the prejudices of her time, Bella is determined to pursue her goal of fighting for equality and independence.