Venice film festival: shock and awe as Joker – and Roman Polanski – triumph
Todd Phillips’s controversial comic book movie starring Joaquin Phoenix has taken the top prize, while Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy was runner-up
Joker, Todd Phillips’ mordant spin on Gotham’s grinning antihero, has won the Golden Lion award at the 76th Venice film festival.
The film, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as a would be standup comic, was ecstatically received at its premiere on the Lido last weekend, with critics immediately tipping it to be the first superhero film to take the best picture Oscar.