Roy Andersson's latest film, the comedy A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence walked away with the Golden Lion award on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival.
The quirky Swedish film managed to beat out the opening film, Birdman, for the award at the world's oldest film festival, Reuters reports.
While accepting the Golden Lion, Andersson said he was inspired by the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves. "It's so full of empathy and it's so humanistic and I think that's what movies should be, in the service of humanism."
U.S. projects as usual were unable to claim much in the way of victories at the 73rd film fest, with Good Kill, Manglehorn and 99 Homes also losing out.
Still, there were still some American winners at the festival, BBC News notes.
Girls actor Adam Driver walked away with the best actor award for his performance in Hungry Hearts. Joshua Oppenheimer did snag the Grand Jury prize for his documentary The Look of Silence.
Hungry Hearts also got Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher a best actress award.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com
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