Applause for a rising Aussie film star

Toby Wallace was crowned as Venice Film Festival royalty on Sunday.

Toby Wallace with his award in Venice. Picture: Getty Images

Toby Wallace was crowned as Venice Film Festival royalty on Sunday, taking out the award for best young actor for the independent Australian drama Babyteeth.

Wallace played Moses, a small-time drug dealer who forms a relationship with a sick teenage girl, in a film directed by Shannon Murphy and also starring Eliza Scanlen and Ben Mendelsohn.

Wallace moved to Australia from Britain as a child and has made a name for himself with prominent roles in film and TV. He played a white nationalist in the television adaptation of Romper Stomper and transformed into journalist Erik Jensen for a recent film adaption of Acute Misfortune.

Wallace accepted the Marcello Mastroianni Award by paying tribute to his co-stars and director, one of only two female directors in the main competition. Babyteeth, adapted from a play by Rita Kalnejais, is Murphy’s debut feature.

The big winner in Venice was Joker, Todd Phillips’s comic book drama starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, which won the Golden Lion Award for best film.

The festival offers an insight into the Academy Awards with Golden Lion recipients — Roma and The Shape of Water — going on to win major honours.