This year films of a religious persuasion were the winners at the world’s oldest film festival, the 69^th Venice Film Festival.

This year films of a religious persuasion were the winners at the world’s oldest film festival, the 69^th Venice Film Festival.

The jury was led by director Michael Mann (Heat, Public Enemies), and also included filmmakers Matteo Garrone and Pablo Trapero, artist Marina Abramovic, and actress Samantha Morton.

So, the winners announced from Venice this week were:

Golden Lion (top prize): Pieta directed by Kim Ki-duk

The first Korean film to take top honours in Venice, director Kim Ki-duk’s challenging film has divided critics and been labeled as “the shock film” of this year’s festival. It’s a story of poverty and violent that centers on a sadistic debt collector who is forced to examine his life when a woman turns up claiming to be his long-lost mother.

Silver Lion for best director: The Master directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

The Master tells the story of a sect leader (influenced by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard), who takes a war veteran under his wing. Momentum is building around this film, which is also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7^th. Watch over the coming months as Harvey Weinstein positions this film for Oscar contention – and yes, the Scientologists are already protesting.

Special Jury Prize: Paradise: Faith directed by Ulrich Seidl

This is the second film in Austrian director Seidl’s trilogy about three women from the same family and their individual quests. Paradise: Faith is a black comedy/drama about a self-flagellating Roman Catholic woman married to a paraplegic Muslim.

Best actress prize: Hadas Yaron in Fill the Void.

Fill the Void tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from Tel Aviv. Yaron stars as youngest daughter Shira who is excited about being married off to a promising young man with a similar background. When her sister dies in childbirth, plans for Shira’s wedding are put on hold as her family considers a match between Shira and her brother-in-law.

Best Actor Prize: shared by co-stars Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master

The jury’s decisions this year weren’t without controversy; not due to the films they selected as winners, but their approach to the rules of the Venice Film Festival. The rules of the Festival prevent the film that wins the top award from winning any other awards. Word on the street was the jury wanted to award the Golden Lion to The Master, but instead opted to reward its actors and director.

As Mann explained to the press, "The rules are very specific. A film may only win one award. The exception is actors. A film could win for actor and one of the other awards, but a film can’t win for actor and Golden Lion."

Mann continues, "[The Master] was awarded best director because we really thought Paul Thomas Anderson's directing was fantastic,” Mann said. “And it allowed us to award the actors. Nobody else could have played these roles. It’s a three-handed triumph" said Mann.