When it was announced that Warner Brothers would premiere Joker at the Venice Film Festival, it became clear that this was easily going to be the most talked about films at the festival. Despite being a rather unlikely choice to get included in a film festival, Joker‘s addition to Venice gave audiences more faith in the Todd Phillips-directed DC film. Joker has already gotten some very promising reviews since its’ premiere at Venice and now, according to the New York Times, managed to win the festival’s most honorable prize: the Golden Lion Award

Todd Philips received the Golden Lion Award and, during his acceptance speech, gave special thanks to Joaquin Phoenix, who he described as, “the fiercest and bravest and most open-minded lion that I know.”  He also praised Warner Bros. for taking such a huge risk on the project. It was impressive for the film to win so big an award, especially considering it was up against Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy and Roy Anderson’s About Endlessness, two very big names at Venice.

This win is not only a big one for Phoenix, Philips and Warner Bros, but also for comic book films as well. This is the first comic book film to received the Golden Lion Award, and considering the genre’s reputation during award season, it’s impressive for any comic book film to win. Things have been looking up for comic book movies during award season, as Black Panther was nominated for Best Picture at the 2018 Academy Awards and even won three awards. If the critical praise seen at Venice persists, then it’s possible to assume that Joker could become the next big comic book film to receive Oscar recognition.  It’s only a matter of time before we see if if the film receives as much gold as it did at Venice.

Joker is set for release October 4th 2019.