74th Venice Film Festival

The Palazzo del Cinema crowd gave what seemed an interminable standing ovation to Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, as they were called onto the stage by Festival Director Alberto Barbera to receive the Golden Lion. It was the first time in the festival’s history that the career prize was given to two filmmakers at the same time, and never could it have been more appropriate.

Guillermo del Toro’s lifelong fascination with monsters and dark fable takes a liquid form in The Shape of Water, an otherworldly love story which is at its core a lyrical, poetic and poignant celebration of artists, idealists, and dreamers. And ultimately, as the director told an HFPA journalist just after receiving a minutes-long standing ovation at the Palazzo del Cinema, about love conquering fear.

Festivals are all about a vast array of talent, ideas and points of view. A good festival - like the ever-classy, ever-young Venice Film Festival - also emphasizes collaboration, its relaxed atmosphere allowing for filmmakers and actors to get together to both celebrate their work and conjure future projects.

After a five-minute applause for the opening night film, filmmakers Alexander Payne, his producers and actors Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig and Hong Chau made a pit stop at the official festival party in a plastic tent on the beach in front of the Excelsior Hotel, before boarding boats to head over to the Grand Canal for their own dinner in the magnificent Ca’ Rezzonico Museum of 18th Century Art. The setting was anything but ‘downsized’: Murano glass chandeliers cast a magical light on the guests, the paintings and reliefs made many gaze up to the ceilings and not even the late hour – the main course of lobster was served at 1 am – could distract from the splendid venue.