Quirky Swedish film takes top Venice award

Wang Xiaoshuai 'serene' at Venice film festival

Chinese figures in Venice

The best young actor award went to Romain Paul for his performance in French director Alix Delaporte's "Le Dernier Coup de Marteau" (The Last Blow of the Hammer) as a young boy torn between remaining faithful to the dying mother who has raised him or going to live with the father he has never known.

He said working in the film had been a thrill and that winning the award was "a great honor but it's stressful".

Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's "Ghesseha" (Tales), chronicling the hardships of life in Tehran, won the award for best screenplay while the Turkish film "Sivas", about a fighting dog and his child owner, took the Special Jury Prize.

Jay Weissberg, reviewer for the trade publication Variety, said he thought the movie by Andersson, whose quirky films have won over audiences in Europe but have not had much traction in the United States, would be "a popular choice".

"I think everyone is quite pleased with that," Weissberg said.

But Weissberg said the fact that the festival's critically acclaimed opening film "Birdman", starring Michael Keaton as a former movie superhero trying to make a comeback on Broadway, was shut out of the awards "might be a bit of a danger" for the festival's efforts to get big-budget Hollywood films in future.

British actor and jury member Tim Roth also said he had thought "Birdman" was among the best movies shown at the festival and that his opinion had not been changed by any reviews "because I never read them".

"'Birdman' stayed with us and some other films came out and kicked us in the butt. It was and is beautifully part of a very strange and quite wonderful selection" of films, he said.