The 83rd Venice Film Festival announced: The jury made an exception and allowed "Unknown Woman" to win the Golden Lion and Best Actress at the same time

The winners of the 83rd Venice Film Festival were announced early in the morning. The biggest surprise was that the jury made a rare exception and allowed the same film to take home the highest honor and best actress at the same time.

In recent years, in order to prevent a single film from being awarded a single award, Venice usually does not allow Golden Lion works to win major individual awards such as Best Actor and Best Actress. Therefore, "Unknown Woman" (tentative translation) won a double award and immediately sparked discussion. Maggie Gyllenhaal, chairperson of the jury, explained at the closing press conference that according to regulations, as long as the second award is unanimously agreed by all the judges, the Golden Lion can be awarded as an exception.

However, "Unknown Woman" is also one of the few, or even the only, work directed by a woman in this year's main competition. Therefore, after the Golden Lion results were announced, some people questioned whether the jury had a "political statement" on gender.

When faced with a pointed question, Maggie Gyllenhaal first deliberately joked: "Actually, I haven't seen "Unknown Woman" at all. I just wanted to say that it was filmed by a female director, so I gave her the Golden Lion." Then she put away her smile and emphasized that she had also seen many works by female directors that she didn't like, or even disliked very much, and it was no different from male directors.

Maggie Gyllenhaal bluntly stated that each member of the jury had only one vote, and each decision went through extensive and complex discussions. She also admitted that she was tired of being asked the same gender questions over and over again. For her, the reason why "Unknown Woman" won the Golden Lion was not because the director was a woman, but because "it is a well-made film in itself." She even described the film as precise and powerful as "a laser."

As for the actress's next success, she once again emphasized that all the judges unanimously believed that Mathilde Arcel's performance was worthy of this award.