Director Yorgos Lanthimos is continuing to make a name for himself, his latest film The Favourite taking out two major prizes at The 75th Venice International Film Festival.
The historical comedy was awarded the Grand Jury Prize, which is considered the silver medal, while Olivia Colman was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in the leading role of Queen Anne.
“We are absolutely delighted with the Venice awards for the brilliant Olivia Colman and the extraordinary Yorgos Lanthimos,” Ed Guiney, producer of The Favourite and co-founder of Element, told The Irish Times.
“Combined with a terrific response at the Telluride Film Festival and a 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes, this positions the film wonderfully for its release in the US later this year.”
The Favourite, which had its world premiere at the film festival in Venice, has received rave reviews, Variety referring to the film as “a perfectly cut diamond of a movie”.
“A finely executed, coldly entertaining entry in the genre of savage misanthropic baroque costume drama,” they added.
The film is based on an original screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, and is set during the reign of Queen Anne in the early 18th century. It goes behind-the-scenes of the politics between two cousins, Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) in a bitter rivalry to be the Queen’s favourite.
The Favourite is due to be released in the US on 23 November.