The 41st Venice International Film Critics’ Week, the independent section running parallel to the film festival and organized by the Italian National Film Critics Union, has given out its hotly anticipated awards. The Grand Prize for Best Film went to Tommaso Usberti’s Italian film Before the War (Prima della guerra), “for its intense and vibrant direction, for the powerful and expressive talent of its lead actor, for the mastery of its mise-en-scène, thanks to superbly crafted images in which bodies, faces and gestures create an impressive physical tension — while provincial Italy becomes the stage for violent passions,” according to…
