Lav Diaz, 57, and Emma Stone, 27, are two of the big winners at the Venice Film Festival 2016. The Filipino filmmaker's "Ang Babaeng Humayo" (The Woman Who Left) won Golden Lion for Best Film while the "La La Land" actress won Coppa Volpi for Best Actress.
Written and directed by Diaz, "The Woman Who Left" is a black-and-white revenge tale inspired by Leo Tolstoy's "God Sees the Truth, But Waits." It was primarily shot in Calapan, Mindoro, Philippines, which is the hometown of the lead actress, Charo Santos-Concio.
"The Woman Who Left" is Santos-Concio's first film since she stepped down as ABS-CBN Corporation President. Among her co-stars are John Lloyd Cruz, Michael de Mesa, Nonie Buencamino, Sharmaine Centenero-Buencamino, Marj Lorico, Mayen Estanero, Romelyn Sale, Lao Rodriguez, Jean Judith Javier, Mae Pane and Kakai Bautista.
On the other hand, among Stone's "La La Land" co-stars are Ryan Gosling, "Justice League" star J. K. Simmons and "All of Me" hitmaker John Legend. The film is set to hit theaters in the United States on Dec. 2.
"La La Land" was written and directed by Damien Chazelle. The title of the film refers both to a nickname for the city of Los Angeles and a euphemism for a state of being out of touch with reality.
Stone told Variety that she identified with the character of Mia, who is an aspiring actress. She said definitely understood the feeling of having a dream to be an actor in films.
"It's pretty insane that we're talking about this movie," Stone told the publication. "And it's something that I'm so proud and excited to be a part of, when that is the goal of the character, is to be a part of something like this."
The Venice Film Festival 2016 jury members were Laurie Anderson, Nina Hoss, Gemma Arterton, Chiara Mastroianni, Zhao Wei, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lorenzo Vigas and Sam Mendes, who was the chair. The complete list of winners is available on the official website of the film festival.
Here is a clip from Venice Film Festival 2016 here: