🔸 The award ceremony and closing of the eighty-third edition of the Venice Film Festival concluded on Saturday evening, 21 Shahrivar, with the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion, being awarded to the film “The Unknown Woman,” directed by May El-Toukhy, a Danish filmmaker who is originally Egyptian—a detail that did not go unnoticed by journalists.

🔸 Maggie Gyllenhaal, the American actress and director who chaired the jury for this edition of the Venice Film Festival, had, at the festival’s opening, complained about the lack of attention to women in the film industry and the shortage of films made by women.

🔸 Laleh Marzban, an actress in the film “Careful,” directed by Mohsen Qarayi, also received the Best Actress award in the “Horizons” section of Venice at the closing ceremony.

🔸 When Ms. Marzban received her award, she dedicated it to all women in Iran and said: “Women in Iran have paid the heaviest price for even the smallest freedoms, and today, more than ever, they carry on their shoulders their courage, their hopes, and their dreams.”

🔸 She added, referring to the fact that the people of Iran are living through the most difficult days in history: “I believe that one day our dream will be fulfilled. For the people and for all of us ...”