‘The Room Next Door’: From Golden Lion at Venice to golden Oscars?

Pedro Almodovar‘s, “The Room Next Door,” just moved to the top tier of Oscar contenders with a big win at the Venice Film Festival. It picked up the top prize, the Golden Lion, on September 7. This recognition, from a jury headed up by French actress Isabelle Huppert, came just days after it debuted on the rialto to a rapturous reception.

The Oscar champ’s first English language feature tells the tale of Ingrid (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) and Martha (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), who were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become a novelist while Martha was a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

This is the second English language film in a row to win this precursor prize. Last year, “Poor Things”  prevailed here and went on to reap a whopping 11 Oscar bids, including Best Picture. It won four races, including a second Best Actress award for Emma Stone.

Other recent English language films to win the Golden Lion also proved to be big Oscar contenders. “The Shape of Water” (2017), “Roma” (2018) and “Joker” (2019) each won multiple Academy Awards. And “Nomadland,” which won in 2020, went on to sweep the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director (Chloe Zhang) and a third Best Actress award for Frances McDormand.

Best Actress went to Moore’s co-star from “The Hours,” Nicole Kidman, for her bravura turn in “Babygirl.” Vincent Lindon was named Best Actor for “The Quiet Son” while Brady Corbet picked up the Best Director award for his epic film “The Brutalist.”

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