VENICE (Italy): Japanese film director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Aku wa Sonzai Shinai” (Evil Does Not Exist) on Saturday won the runner-up Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize in the competition section at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

With this prize, Hamaguchi, 44, has won awards at all of the Big Three international film festivals, following Berlin and Cannes in 2021. Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” won the Oscar for International Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards. In the past, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa won awards at the three major international film festivals and an Oscar.

This year’s top Golden Lion for Best Film went to the British film “Poor Things” by Yorgos Lanthimos.

“Aku wa Sonzai Shinai” was planned in collaboration between Hamaguchi and Eiko Ishibashi, who was in charge of music for “Drive My Car.”

Hamaguchi conceived the story and wrote the script. The film portrays the ripple effects of a tourism development plan brought from Tokyo to a nature-rich village where a father and his young daughter live. It will be released in Japan next year.

“I’m glad to have come this far” with the staff and cast, Hamaguchi said at the award ceremony after taking the stage together with Hitoshi Omika, 34, who stars in the film. “I received such a wonderful award.”

Meanwhile, “Hokage” (Shadow of Fire) by Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto, 63, which competed in the Venice festival’s Orizzonti section for new expressions, failed to win the award.

JIJI Press