Jake Gyllenhaal has congratulated his brother-in-law Peter Sarsgaard on winning Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival over the weekend.

The Shattered Glass star, who is married to Gyllenhaal’s sister Maggie, took home the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Italian awards ceremony on Saturday for his performance as a dementia sufferer in Michel Franco’s Memory.

Gyllenhaal celebrated the win on Instagram by sharing a picture of Sarsgaard with his award and writing, “Congratulations to my incredible (and incredibly talented) brother in law @gaardsars for winning Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival! Couldn’t be happier for this extraordinary human. Love you brother.”

Sarsgaard was able to attend the film festival to collect the honour in person as Memory had been granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement amid the ongoing strikes.

Appearing visibly moved during his speech, Sarsgaard paid tribute to his wife and revealed his personal connection to Memory, sharing that his uncle “Bubba” suffered from dementia and died during the pandemic.

He also spoke out in support of the writers’ and actors’ strikes and warned of the consequences of using artificial intelligence (AI) in cinema.

“Without that (connection)… this holy experience of being human will be handed over to the machines and the eight billionaires who own them. So if we lose that battle in the strike, our industry will be the first of many to fall,” he said.

During the ceremony, Cailee Spaeny was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s movie Priscilla.

The night’s biggest prize, the Golden Lion for Best Film, went to Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos, while the Grand Jury Prize was bestowed upon Evil Does Not Exist by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and the Special Jury Prize was given to Green Border by Agnieszka Holland.

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