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The absurdist vignette movie A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence by Sweden's Roy Andersson won the top prize at the Venice film Festival in a somewhat surprising verdict that left Alejandro Iñiarritu’s Birdman out of the running. The jury, opting perhaps for a less Hollywood-centric choice, also awarded Russian veteran Andrej Koncalovskij the Silver Lion for his The Postman’s White Nights.

The Mafia cast a long shadow on this year’s Venice Festival, or at least in several Italian films shown here that deal with organized crime syndicates and the very real and corrosive damage they continue to perpetuate on Italian society. It is now becoming apparent that the effects of the Mafia, on the institutions here, if not by sheer body count, resemble those of the Mexican drug wars, and more and more films are reflecting that realization.

Bell Lightbox: The festival headquartersForty-five HFPA members are in Toronto for the annual film festival which now rivals Cannes and Venice for star power and movie premieres. This year the festival is showing a total of 393 films, including 142 world premieres.

Laika Studios is one of the world’s foremost production houses dedicated to the art of stop motion animation. The Portland animation house is also a pioneer in using “replacement animation” and combining it with 3D printing.

September came in like a lion in Venice with a late Summer (or was it early Fall?) storm lashing the Lido and sending hapless patrons in tuxes and evening gowns scrambling for cover outside the Palazzo del Cinema. Some of the soaked festivalgoers had come from the screening of Boxtrolls which Focus Features is due to release on September 26 and which is the sole animated entry at this year’s festival.

The summer is officially at a close, and it’s not been one to remember. Not from a North American viewpoint, at least.

Austria may be a small country but it sure has a booming film industry. Think Haneke, Waltz, Ruzowitzky and the four Oscars – and many Golden Globes – they won.

Another Hollywood heavyweight elicited another warm welcome from festival-goers here and the weekend belonged to Al Pacino, pulling double-duty on the Lido with back-to-back showings, of The Humbling which we told you about yesterday, and David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn. Green was here last year with the Southern Drama Joe whose protagonist (Nicolas Cage) was a misfit in search of redemption.

The HFPA gained plaudits and publicity for giving away almost $2 million at it's grants dinner last month, but its charity work continues throughout the year, as a recent letter from the Small Wonders Foundation to HFPA president Theo Kingma demonstrates. In it, Small Wonders president Thelma Waxman thanked theHFPA for donating a Golden Globe awards celebrity gift bag to the silent auction at the Foundation's fundraising event, Night of Wonders, held in June.

In a personal letter to HFPA President Theo Kingma, Martin Scorsese, the founder and chairman of the Film Foundation, thanked the HFPA for supporting the restoration of classic films through generous funds. Because of your passionate commitment, writes Mr Scorsese, future generations will experience a wealth of cinematic treasures that would otherwise have been lost.