Italy:Taiwanese director Ang Lee's sexually explicit spy thriller Lust, Cautionwas the surprise winner of the top award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, just two years after he won with Brokeback Mountain.
The verdict means Asian directors have won the festival's Golden Lion award for the last three years.
The Silver Lion for best director went to US film maker Brian De Palma, whose Redactedshocked audiences with its brutal reconstruction of the real-life rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by US soldiers in 2006.
The main competition line-up of 23 movies was strong on political cinema, with two US entries tackling the war in Iraq.
There were also films about migrant workers in Britain, police brutality in Egypt and corporate corruption in New York.
Todd Haynes, maker of one of six US productions in competition, scooped the other runner-up slot with I'm Not There, his conceptual biopic of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
In a bold piece of casting, Australian-born Cate Blanchett was one of six performers to play the singer at various stages of his life.
It paid off when she was named best actress.
Brad Pitt was the surprise winner of the best actor award for his portrayal of legendary outlaw Jesse James in The Assassination of Jesse Jamesby the Coward Robert Ford.
Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci won a lifetime achievement award.
- (Reuters)