Sunday night’s Oscars saw Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Hollywood satire Birdman win big with four awards, including best picture. But the victory has provoked unexpected controversy in Italy, where the film was first seen.
The star-studded tale of a former A-lister trying to stage a comeback was originally launched on the opening night of the Venice film festival last August, where it won great acclaim and was seen as a frontrunner for top prize the Golden Lion. But Swedish director Roy Andersson’s surrealist comedy A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting Existence ended up bagging the Lion; a decision that has now caused some ire in the Italian press.
“We are left with a bitter taste in our mouth for that film, about which we could have said that it won the Golden Lion before the Oscars,” read a story in Turin paper La Stampa, while entertainment site Dagospia sought to remind the “otherworldly” jury that “Hollywood movies aren’t shit”.
But officials from Venice have used Birdman’s win to highlight the festival’s continued relevance on the world stage.
“If the finest and most dynamic film industry in the world entrusts the world premiere of films aspiring to the Oscars to the Venice film festival, this seems to me an important sign of the international prestige that our Festival enjoys today,” read a statement from Paolo Baratta, president of the Biennale.
Birdman was the opening night film at Venice last year; in 2013 that spot went to Gravity, which went on to win seven Oscars, including best director for Alfonso Cuarón. But while that spot in the schedule is likely to become ever more coveted, the winner of the Golden Lion has rarely been seen as a bellwether of awards glory. Recent winners including Alexander Sokurov’s Faust and the Italian documentary Sacro GRA.
