Oscar-winning Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's "Evil Does Not Exist" won the runner-up Grand Jury Prize award on Saturday at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
With his latest feat, he follows in the footsteps of renowned director Akira Kurosawa, who also bagged awards at all of the top three prestigious film festivals in Venice, Berlin and Cannes, as well as at the Oscars in the United States.
The last time a Japanese filmmaker won an award at Venice was in 2020 when Kiyoshi Kurosawa won a Silver Lion for best director for "Wife of a Spy" ("Spy no Tsuma"), which followed the story of a couple in 1940 in the city of Kobe before the outbreak of World War II.