Chinese Film Wins Top Award at Venice Festival : Movies: Director Zhang Yimou’s ‘Not One Less,’ snubbed at Cannes, shines at 56th event.

Spurned by Cannes, the Chinese film “Not One Less,” directed by Zhang Yimou, took the top prize at the 56th edition of the Venice Film Festival on Saturday night.

The jury’s special prize went to “The Wind Will Carry Us,” by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.

Best acting honors went to French actress Nathalie Baye for “A Pornographic Liaison,” the unpornographic story of a couple’s weekly hotel trysts by Belgian director Frederic Fonteyne, and to Britain’s Jim Broadbent for his role as the Gilbert half of the operetta team Gilbert and Sullivan in Mike Leigh’s “Topsy-Turvy.”

Another Chinese director, Zhang Yuan, won the special prize for directing for “Seventeen Years,” the story of a family split by murder. The award for an emerging actor or actress went to Nina Proll in the Austrian film about generational angst, “Nordland,” directed by Barbara Albert.

The festival also awarded a prize for the first time to the best first film by a director. It went to Italy’s Giovanni Davide Maderna for “This Is the Garden,” the story of a young couple in love.

American comedian Jerry Lewis was also honored with a lifetime achievement award. It was presented by director Martin Scorsese, who praised Lewis as a “genuine American artist” who “created a truly modern kind of physical comedy.”

Zhang Yimou’s previous hits include “Raise the Red Lantern.” His “Not One Less” features nonactors, most of them children. It tells the story of a 13-year-old schoolgirl who is recruited as a substitute teacher in a Chinese village when the real teacher has to leave to see his sick mother.

Both Chinese films employ a naturalistic narrative style that stood in stark contrast to some of the popular favorites of the festival, such as the surreal American comedy “Being John Malkovich,” which was not screened for competition.

“Our way of directing is very simple,” said Zhang Yimou, whose film was financed by Columbia TriStar. “But it’s a way that shows the humanity of the people in our films.”