FILIPINO director Lav Diaz won the Golden Lion for his film “The Woman Who Left.” The drama explores themes of revenge after a wrongly convicted schoolteacher struggles after her release from prison.

    Tom Ford won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize for his second feature film, “Nocturnal Animals,” a thriller starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal.

    Ford first came to the festival in 2009 where his debut film “A Single Man” premiered in competition. Colin Firth won the Coppa Volpi for best actor and was later nominated for an academy award for his performance. The film also won the Queer Lion that year.

    The Silver Lion for best director was a split this year between Mexican Amat Escalante for his sci-fi film “Untamed” and Russian Andrei Konchalovsky for his holocaust drama “Paradise.” Venice juries are historically allowed one tie for a prize.

    The Coppa Volpi prize for best actress went to Emma Stone for her singing and dancing turn in the universally praised “La La Land.”

    The Coppa Volpi for best actor went to Oscar Martinez for “The Distinguished Citizen” by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, about a Nobel-Prize winning novelist who returns to his small town home in Argentina.

    The best screenplay award went to Noah Oppenheim for “Jackie.” Natalie Portman plays the famous first lady in the film directed by Pablo Larrain in the days following JFK’s assassination. The special jury prize went to Ana Lily Amirpour for her cannibalistic love story “The Bad Batch.”

    The Marcello Mastroianni award for best newcomer went to Paula Beer for the acclaimed period drama “Frantz” by Francois Ozon. It was the first time the young German actress performed in French.

    It was a year led by studios since Venice has been a lucky charm for Oscar launches, premiering three big winners in recent years, including “Gravity,” “Birdman” and “Spotlight.”

    A jury led by British director Sam Mendes chose winners from among 20 movies competing at the 73rd annual festival.

    Unlike in previous years, critics were not so divided among films this year. Over the course of the festival, the highest reviewed film among Italian and foreign critics was “La La Land.” “Jackie” followed by a close second. The lowest reviewed film was “The Bad Batch.”

    The Horizons jury awarded the best film to “Liberami” by Federica di Giacomo, a documentary about exorcism in Sicily. Flemish director FIen Troch won best director for her look at the generational divide between teenagers and their parents in “Home.” The special jury prize went to Turkish filmmaker Reha Erdem for “Big Big World.”

    The best screenplay went to Wang Bing for “Bitter Money” about the violent living conditions of migrants in East China. Nuno Lopes won best actor for his turn as a boxing enthusiast turned debt collector in “Sao Jorges” by Marco Martins. Best actress went to Ruth Diaz for her role in the debut film “The Fury of a Patient Man” from actor Raul Arevalo.

    Tunisian director Ala Eddine Slim won the prestigious Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future, best debut film award for “The Last of Us.” Premiering in Critics’ Week, the film tells, without any dialogue, the story of an illegal sea crossing from Africa to Europe.

    The world’s oldest film festival wrapped up Saturday after 11 days that brought stars including Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington to the canal-crossed Italian city.

    (SD-Agencies)