Israeli actor Kais Nashif won the Best Actor Award for his role in the film Tel Aviv on Fire, which was in the Horizons (Orizzonti) Section of the Venice International Film Festival. The award was announced at a ceremony on Saturday night.
Nashif, who is from Tayibe, has appeared in such films as Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies and Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now.
Tel Aviv on Fire, which was directed by Sameh Zoabi, tells the story of a young Palestinian in Ramallah who writes for a soap opera. The film will have its Israel premiere at the Haifa International Film Festival, which opens on September 22.
The winner of the Golden Lion Award in the main competition was Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, a black-and-white semi-autobiographical film based on the director’s childhood memories of growing up in Mexico City in the 1970s. It is his first Spanish-language film in years. He has worked in Hollywood and won a Best Director Oscar for Gravity.
Roma will be released on Netflix.
Joel and Ethan Coen shared the screenplay award for their latest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
The acting awards in the Main Competition went to Olivia Colman for The Favourite and Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate.