from the LA Times
Ben Affleck emerged as a true superman from the Venice Film Festival where he was the surprising winner of the best actor award for his portrayal of TV's Superman in "Hollywoodland."
As expected, Helen Mirren was crowned best actress for "The Queen," but another upset occurred in the race for best picture. Although "Bobby," "The Queen" and French film "Private Fears" were considered the frontrunners, the prize went to "Still Life" — the tale of a Chinese village destroyed by the building of the Three Gorges dam — by director Jia Zhang-Ke, a darling of the international festival circuit. In the past he won various prizes at Venice and Berlin for "Zhantai" and "Xiao Wu" and has been nommed at Cannes ("Ren xiao yao").
"We were told there would be a surprise film at the end of this festival, and we didn't have a lot of discussion," announced jury chief Catherine Deneuve.
Usually, the top trophy goes to lesser-known. foreign-language films, but western stars often fare well in the acting categories. Affleck's victory is a real shockeroo considering how his rep's declined in recent years due to a series of film bombs ("Surviving Christmas," "Gigli"), a life lived in tabloid headlines and because his role in "Hollywoodland" is considered to be supporting Adrien Brody. Affleck won an Oscar in 1997 for co-writing "Good Will Hunting," but has never received an acting bid.
Only a few times has a lead acting award at Venice translated into an Oscar and they were all more than 50 years ago: Vivien Leigh ("Streetcar Named Desire"), Paul Muni ("The Story of Louis Pasteur"), Fredric March ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde")
Many other Venice champs have subsequently been nommed by the academy, including last year's victor David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck"), Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls") and Albert Finney ("Tom Jones"), but only rarely so.
