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| Mirren is crowned Queen at Venice | Mirren is crowned Queen at Venice |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Dame Helen Mirren has been named best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role as Queen Elizabeth II. | Dame Helen Mirren has been named best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role as Queen Elizabeth II. |
| Dame Helen has won high praise for her performance in The Queen, about the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. | Dame Helen has won high praise for her performance in The Queen, about the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. |
| Ben Affleck was named best actor for his role in Hollywoodland. He portrays late US actor George Reeves, who played Superman on TV in the 1950s. | |
| Chinese film Still Life, about the effects of the Three Gorges Dam, took the Golden Lion prize for best film. | Chinese film Still Life, about the effects of the Three Gorges Dam, took the Golden Lion prize for best film. |
| In all, 22 films competed for the awards, with last year's Golden Lion going to cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain. | |
| I'm just a bit of the DNA of the film Dame Helen Mirren | I'm just a bit of the DNA of the film Dame Helen Mirren |
| Dame Helen, 61, was introduced on stage as "Her Majesty Helen Mirren". | |
| Accepting her award, she said: "It's always terrifying seeing your movie take its first steps, but its an incredible honour for our film to take them at the Venice festival." | |
| She added that she was "just a bit of the DNA of the film", saying the movie's mother was screenwriter Peter Morgan and its father was director Stephen Frears. | She added that she was "just a bit of the DNA of the film", saying the movie's mother was screenwriter Peter Morgan and its father was director Stephen Frears. |
| The Queen, which was the only British film in competition, also picked up best screenplay. | |
| Collecting his prize, Mr Morgan joked: "Thank you Tony Blair for timing your political disintegration with the release of our film." | Collecting his prize, Mr Morgan joked: "Thank you Tony Blair for timing your political disintegration with the release of our film." |
| As well as Dame Helen - who has been tipped for an Oscar nomination - The Queen features James Cromwell as Prince Philip and Michael Sheen as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. | As well as Dame Helen - who has been tipped for an Oscar nomination - The Queen features James Cromwell as Prince Philip and Michael Sheen as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. |
| Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke was a surprise recipient of the Golden LionThe film portrays the royal family's struggle to come to terms with the public reaction to the princess's death in 1997, including demands for a show of mourning from the monarchy. | Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke was a surprise recipient of the Golden LionThe film portrays the royal family's struggle to come to terms with the public reaction to the princess's death in 1997, including demands for a show of mourning from the monarchy. |
| Before Saturday's ceremony, The Queen was thought to be among the favourites for the Golden Lion. | Before Saturday's ceremony, The Queen was thought to be among the favourites for the Golden Lion. |
| Still Life, directed by 36-year-old Jia Zhang-Ke, was a late entry to the festival's line-up. | Still Life, directed by 36-year-old Jia Zhang-Ke, was a late entry to the festival's line-up. |
| It tells the story of a miner and a nurse who return to a town that is being submerged by the dam's construction. | |
| Actress Catherine Deneuve, who headed the jury, described it as "a very special film". | |
| She praised "the beauty of the cinematography and the quality of the story, without getting political", and said: "We were very touched and we were very moved." | |
| But critics were less impressed. Hollywood bible Variety said Still Life was "slow", "aptly titled" and had "almost zero plot". | |
| And Screen Daily described it as a "slow, elaborate, thoughtful" film that "will not gain much of an audience beyond festivals or very specialised programming". | |
| Bobby snubbed | |
| The best director award went to Frenchman Alain Resnais for Private Fears in Public Places, while the special jury prize went to Daratt, Chad's first entry in the competition. | The best director award went to Frenchman Alain Resnais for Private Fears in Public Places, while the special jury prize went to Daratt, Chad's first entry in the competition. |
| Hollywood film Bobby, centred on the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, was another film to be earmarked as a favourite before the ceremony. | |
| But its director Emilio Estevez and cast including Sharon Stone, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore and Lindsay Lohan won nothing. | |
| The Venice event is considered second only to Cannes in terms of prestige on the film festival circuit. | The Venice event is considered second only to Cannes in terms of prestige on the film festival circuit. |
| The success of The Queen comes two years after Mike Leigh's acclaimed Vera Drake won the Golden Lion and actress Imelda Staunton picked up best actress. | |