Showbiz411

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” won and didn’t win the Venice Film Festival tonight. “The Master” won best director and each of its actors–Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix–won best actor. Even the score won an award.

The film apparently was supposed to win Best Picture, and did on the jury’s first ballot. But some kind of infighting over a film not getting too many awards meant a last minute change. The Golden Lion–Best Picture–was taken away from “The Master” and given to a Korean film that no one in the United States will ever see.

This may be just as well. The Venice Film Festival is known for giving out odd awards to films and actors that are never again acknowledged. So maybe losing the Golden Lion is a better prize. Nevertheless, “The Master” is a serious awards contender from here on out.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.