Korean film 'Pieta' wins at Venice Film Festival

Venice: South Korean movie Pieta, an ultra-violent story of a loan shark confronted by a mysterious woman claiming to be his mother, scooped the Golden Lion award for best picture at the Venice film festival.

The other big winner on the night was Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, loosely based on the early days of Scientology, which earned him a Silver Lion for best director and a joint best actor award for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. All three prizes will be popular on the Lido waterfront, where critics praised Pieta's visceral portrayal of a twisted story of love and revenge, difficult at times to watch but also absorbing and moving in equal measure.

Director Kim Ki-duk sang a traditional Korean song Arirang as part of his acceptance speech, and later told reporters: "This is a song that we Koreans sing when we are sad, when we feel alone, when we feel desperate, but also when we're happy." Asked how he felt about receiving the award, he picked up the Golden Lion and kissed it.

Hoffman, playing a character based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Phoenix as his troubled, volatile protege, were clear front runners for the acting prize and both are expected to be in the frame when Oscar nominations are announced. Hoffman rushed back to Italy to accept the awards on his own and his colleagues' behalf.

"I just got off a plane, like, five minutes ago, literally," he told the red carpet awards ceremony. "I still have crust in my eyes from the sleep on the plane. I put this suit on in a bathroom, so please don't judge."

He went on to praise Phoenix, who was back to his best form in The Master after several years in the acting wilderness. "Joaquin Phoenix is a life force in this film ... and I kind of rode that life force and that was my performance.

"It was really riding his life force because it was something that was untameable and my job was to try to and it was almost impossible, which is kind of the movie." In examining the founding of the self-described religion of Scientology, Anderson tackled a topic many film makers would consider taboo given the support it enjoys in Hollywood and its sensitivity to perceived criticism. He confirmed he had shown the film to Tom Cruise, a leading Scientologist, and said the two were 'still friends'.