Every Venice Golden Lion Winner (Since 2000), Ranked
It’s been a busy week and a half on the Lido, but the 2022 Venice International Film Festival has officially crowned this year’s Golden Lion winner: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
After the lineup of contenders was revealed in July, the 2022 Golden Lion (or the Leone d’Oro, as it’s called in Italian) was awarded by a jury of seven entertainment heavyweights, including directors, screenwriters, and actors, led by this year’s jury president Julianne Moore.
This year, the competition included titles from previous winners Darren Aronofsky and Jafar Panahi, as well as Alejandro González Iñárritu, Noah Baumbach, Laura Poitras, and others.
As the world’s oldest film festival, Venice is always a highlight for cinema lovers around the globe (although this year’s event was slightly more high-profile than usual). Held as part of the larger Venice Biennale cultural exhibition — which celebrates art, dance, theater, and architecture, as well as cinema — this year marked the 79th running of the film program.
To honor the past and present of the Venice International Film Festival, Metacritic is looking back at the event's history. Specifically, we're highlighting all of the films that have won the Golden Lion since the turn of the millennium.
On the list, you’ll find titles from all over the globe, including the United States, Iran, Italy, Mexico, South Korea, and more. There are also numerous Academy Award winners, including multiple films that have won or been nominated for Best Picture. Here, Metacritic shares every Golden Lion winner since 2000, ranked from worst to best by Metascore.
Additional content by Jason Dietz
Above photo: Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Joaquin Phoenix stars in 2019’s Joker, Todd Phillips and Scott Silver’s updated take on the DC Comics’ villain’s origin story. In the film, the titular character (whose real name is Arthur Fleck) is a party clown for hire who dreams of becoming a standup comic. Amid a series of setbacks, rejection, and ridicule, Arthur becomes bitter and violent — ultimately sparking chaos in Gotham City. In addition to the Golden Lion, Joker won two Oscars (from a leading 11 nominations). For his performance, Phoenix earned Best Actor accolades at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards.
“Its characters are one-note cartoony, but fun is the last thing on this movie’s mind; it’s all despair, from its opening scenes on downward.” —Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times