Volpi Cup for Best Actor

Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Coppa Volpi per la migliore interpretazione maschile (Italian)
The 2024 recipient: Vincent Lindon
Awarded for	Best Performance by an Actor
Country	Italy
Presented by	Venice Film Festival
First award	1932
Currently held by	Vincent Lindon The Quiet Son (2024) [1]
Website	labiennale.org/en/cinema

The Volpi Cup for Best Actor (Italian : Coppa Volpi per la migliore interpretazione maschile) is the principal award given to actors at the Venice Film Festival and is named in honor of Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, the founder of the Venice Film Festival. The name and number of prizes have been changed several times since their introduction, ranging from two to four awards per edition and sometimes acknowledging both leading and supporting performances.

History

The festival was officially competitive for the first time in 1934. The acting award was named Grande medaglia d'oro dell'Associazione Nazionale Fascista dello Spettacolo per il migliore attore (Great Gold Medal of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment for the Best Actor). After a four-year hiatus caused by the war, the festival was once again competitive in 1947. The acting award in the immediate post-war period was named Premio Internazionale per il migliore attore (International Award for the Best Actor). ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} The festival was again competitive in 1980 but the acting awards given by the competition jury were not reinstated until 1983: the prizes were no longer called Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) but were simply referred to as Premio per il migliore attore (Best Actor Award). The winners did not receive cup-shaped awards but were instead given rectangular plaques. In 1988, for the first time in 20 years, the most recognizable prizes of the festival were re-established. The two acting award was officially named Coppa Volpi per la migliore interpretazione maschile (Volpi Cup for the Best Actor). ^[6]

Winners

Fredric March won twice for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), and Death of a Salesman (1952)

Jean Gabin won for twice for The Night Is My Kingdom (1951) and both The Air of Paris & Honour Among Thieves (1954)

James Stewart won for Anatomy of a Murder (1958)

Toshiro Mifune won twice for Yojimbo (1961) and Red Beard (1965)

Burt Lancaster won for Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Hugh Grant won for Maurice (1987)

Marcello Mastroianni won twice for What Time Is It? (1989) and 1, 2, 3, Sun (1993)

Liam Neeson won for Michael Collins (1996)

Sean Penn won twice for Hurlyburly (1998) and 21 Grams (2003)

Javier Bardem won twice for Before Night Falls (2000), and The Sea Inside (2004)

Michael Fassbender won for Shame (2011)

Joaquin Phoenix won for The Master (2012)

Adam Driver won for Hungry Hearts (2014)

Colin Farrell won for The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

The following actors received the Volpi Cup or other major Best Actor Award: ^{[7] [8]}

Table key

‡	Indicates the Best Supporting Actor winner

1930s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
Awarded as "Best Actor"
1932	Fredric March [A]	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Awarded as "Great Gold Medal of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment for Best Actor"
1933	Wallace Beery	Pancho Villa	Viva Villa!
Awarded as "Volpi Cup for Best Actor"
1935	Pierre Blanchar	Rodion Raskolnikov	Crime and Punishment	Crime et châtiment
1936	Paul Muni	Louis Pasteur	The Story of Louis Pasteur
1937	Emil Jannings	Matthias Clausen	The Ruler	Der Herrscher
1938	Leslie Howard	Professor Henry Higgins	Pygmalion

1940s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
1941	Ermete Zacconi	Don Geronimo Buonaparte	Don Buonaparte
1942	Fosco Giachetti	Captain Enrico Berti	Bengasi
Awarded as "International Award for Best Actor"
1947	Pierre Fresnay	Vincent de Paul	Monsieur Vincent
1948	Ernst Deutsch	Scharf	The Trial	Der Prozeß
1949	Joseph Cotten	Eben Adams	Portrait of Jennie

1950s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
1950	Sam Jaffe	Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider	The Asphalt Jungle
Awarded as "Volpi Cup for Best Actor"
1951	Jean Gabin	Raymond Pinsard	The Night Is My Kingdom	La nuit est mon royaume
1952	Fredric March	Willy Loman	Death of a Salesman
1953	Henri Vilbert	François Dupont	Good Lord Without Confession	Le Bon Dieu sans confession
1954	Jean Gabin [B]	Victor Le Garrec	The Air of Paris	L'air de Paris
		Max	Honour Among Theives	Touchez pas au grisbi
1955	Curd Jürgens	Wolf Gerke	The Heroes Are Tired	Les héros sont fatigués
	Kenneth More	Freddie Page	The Deep Blue Sea
1956	Bourvil	Marcel Martin	La Traversée de Paris
1957	Anthony Franciosa	Polo Pope	A Hatful of Rain
1958	Alec Guinness	Gulley Jimson	The Horse's Mouth
1959	James Stewart	Paul Biegler	Anatomy of a Murder

1960s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
1960	John Mills	Lt. Col. Basil Barrow	Tunes of Glory
1961	Toshiro Mifune	Sanjuro	Yojimbo
1962	Burt Lancaster	Robert Stroud	Birdman of Alcatraz
1963	Albert Finney	Tom Jones	Tom Jones
1964	Tom Courtenay	Private Arthur Hamp	King and Country
1965	Toshiro Mifune	Dr. Kyojō Niide	Red Beard
1966	Jacques Perrin	Michele	Un uomo a metà
1967	Ljubiša Samardžić	Mali	The Morning
1968	John Marley	Richard Forst	Faces

1980s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
Awarded as "Best Actor Award"
1983	Guy Boyd	Rooney	Streamers
	George Dzundza	Cokes
	David Alan Grier	Roger
	Mitchell Lichtenstein	Richie
	Matthew Modine	Billy
	Michael Wright	Carlyle
1984	Naseeruddin Shah	Naurangia	Paar
1985	Gérard Depardieu	Louis Vincent Mangin	Police
1986	Carlo Delle Piane	Antonio Sant'Elia	Christmas Present
1987	Hugh Grant	Clive Durham	Maurice
	James Wilby	Maurice Hall
Awarded as "Volpi Cup for Best Actor"
1988	Don Ameche	Gino	Things Change
	Joe Mantegna	Jerry
1989	Marcello Mastroianni	Marcello	What Time Is It?
	Massimo Troisi	Michele

1990s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
1990	Oleg Borisov	Christo Panov / Svidetel	The Only Witness
1991	River Phoenix	Mikey Waters	My Own Private Idaho
1992	Jack Lemmon	Shelley "The Machine" Levene	Glengarry Glen Ross
1993	Fabrizio Bentivoglio	Pietro De Leo	A Soul Split in Two
	Marcello Mastroianni ‡	Constantin Laspada	1, 2, 3, Sun
1994	Xia Yu	Ma Xiaojun	In the Heat of the Sun
	Roberto Citran ‡	Loris	The Bull
1995	Götz George	Fritz Haarmann	Deathmaker
	Ian Hart ‡	Ginger	Nothing Personal
1996	Liam Neeson	Michael Collins	Michael Collins
	Chris Penn ‡	Cesarian "Chez" Tempio	The Funeral
1997	Wesley Snipes	Max Carlyle	One Night Stand
1998	Sean Penn	Eddie	Hurlyburly
1999	Jim Broadbent	W. S. Gilbert	Topsy-Turvy

2000s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
2000	Javier Bardem	Reinaldo Arenas	Before Night Falls
2001	Luigi Lo Cascio	Antonio	Light of My Eyes
2002	Stefano Accorsi	Dino Campana	A Journey Called Love
2003	Sean Penn	Paul Rivers	21 Grams
2004	Javier Bardem	Ramón Sampedro	The Sea Inside
2005	David Strathairn	Edward R. Murrow	Good Night, and Good Luck
2006	Ben Affleck	George Reeves	Hollywoodland
2007	Brad Pitt	Jesse James	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2008	Silvio Orlando	Michele Casali	Giovanna's Father
2009	Colin Firth	George Falconer	A Single Man

2010s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
2010	Vincent Gallo	Mohammed	Essential Killing
2011	Michael Fassbender	Brandon Sullivan	Shame
2012	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Lancaster Dodd	The Master
	Joaquin Phoenix	Freddie Quell
2013	Themis Panou	Father	Miss Violence
2014	Adam Driver	Jude	Hungry Hearts
2015	Fabrice Luchini	Michel Racine	Courted	L'Hermine
2016	Oscar Martínez	Daniel Mantovani	The Distinguished Citizen	El ciudadano ilustre
2017	Kamel El Basha	Yasser Abdallah Salameh	The Insult	قضية رقم ٢٣
2018	Willem Dafoe	Vincent van Gogh	At Eternity's Gate
2019	Luca Marinelli	Martin Eden	Martin Eden

2020s

Year	Actor	Role(s)	English Title	Original Title
2020	Pierfrancesco Favino	Alfonso	Padrenostro
2021	John Arcilla	Sisoy Salas	On the Job: The Missing 8
2022	Colin Farrell	Pádraic Súilleabháin	The Banshees of Inisherin
2023	Peter Sarsgaard	Saul	Memory
2024	Vincent Lindon	Pierre	The Quiet Son	Jouer avec le feu

Multiple winners

The following individuals have received multiple Best Actor awards:

Number of Wins	Actor	Nationality	Films
2	Fredric March	United States	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), Death of a Salesman (1952)
	Jean Gabin [8]	France	The Night Is My Kingdom (1951), The Air of Paris & Touchez pas au grisbi (both 1954)
	Toshiro Mifune [8]	Japan	Yojimbo (1961), Red Beard (1965)
	Marcello Mastroianni	Italy	What Time Is It? (1989), 1, 2, 3, Sun (1993)
	Sean Penn [8]	United States	Hurlyburly (1998), 21 Grams (2003)
	Javier Bardem [8]	Spain	Before Night Falls (2000), The Sea Inside (2004)

See also

The following individuals have also received Best Actor award(s) at Cannes or Berlin Film Festival.

Winning Year at Venice	Actor	Nationality	Festival	Year	English Title
1932 1952	Fredric March	United States	Berlin	1960	Inherit The Wind
1951 1954	Jean Gabin	France	Berlin	1959	Archimède le clochard
				1971	Le Chat
1959	James Stewart	United States	Berlin	1962	Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
1962	Burt Lancaster	United States	Berlin	1956	Trapeze
1963	Albert Finney	England	Berlin	1984	The Dresser
1964	Tom Courtenay	England	Berlin	2015	45 Years
1985	Gérard Depardieu	France	Cannes	1990	Cyrano de Bergerac
1989 1993	Marcello Mastroianni	Italy	Cannes	1970	The Pizza Triangle
				1987	Dark Eyes
1992	Jack Lemmon	United States	Cannes	1979	The China Syndrome
			Berlin	1981	Tribute
			Cannes	1982	Missing
1998 2003	Sean Penn	United States	Berlin	1996	Dead Man Walking
			Cannes	1997	She's So Lovely
2000 2004	Javier Bardem	Spain	Cannes	2010	Biutiful
2012	Joaquin Phoenix	United States	Cannes	2017	You Were Never Really Here
2024	Vincent Lindon	France	Cannes	2015	The Measure of a Man

Notes

A ^ : Winner of the award was chosen by public voting.

B ^ : Performer to receive a single award which honor the outstanding work in multiple different films in the same official competition slate.

References

1. Tartaglione, Andreas Wiseman,Nancy (2024-09-07). "Venice Winners: Pedro Almodóvar's 'The Room Next Door' Wins The Golden Lion; Also Wins For Nicole Kidman, Brady Corbet, 'I'm Still Here' & More". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
2. "La Magnani premiata come miglior attrice". La Stampa. 16 September 1947. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
3. "Il Gran Premio ad "Amleto" di Olivier". La Stampa. 5 September 1948. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
4. "L'assegnazione dei diciassette premi". L'Unità. 2 September 1949. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
5. "L'assegnazione dei premi". La Stampa. 11 September 1950. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
6. "Tutti i premiati". La Stampa. 10 September 1988. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
7. "Coppa Volpi for best actors since 1935". labiennale.org. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
8. "Volpi Cup for Best Actor 1934 to 2012". carnivalofvenice.com. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2018.

External links

• Venice Film Festival on IMDb
• Enrico Lancia, I premi del cinema, Gremese Editore, 1998
• Coppa Volpi for best actors since 1935 from "La Biennale" website