VENICE, Italy — Emma Stone won the Venice Film Festival’s best actress prize Saturday for her role as Mia, an aspiring actress and playwright who’s deep into the magic of the old movie stars, in Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land.”

In a recent interview with Variety at the Telluride Film Festival where the film saw its North American debut, Stone talked about identifying with the character of Mia.

“I definitely understood the feeling of moving to Los Angeles and having a dream to be an actor in films and to get to be a part of things that I loved and inspire people in some way,” she said. “It’s pretty insane that we’re talking about this movie and it’s something that I’m so proud and excited to be a part of, when that is the goal of the character, is to be a part of something like this.”

Recent winners of the Coppa Volpi that have gone on to receive Oscar acting nominations include Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman (“The Master”), Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), Cate Blanchett (“I’m Not There”), Helen Mirren (“The Queen”), David Strathairn (“Good Night, and Good Luck.”), Imelda Staunton (“Vera Drake”), Julianne Moore (“Far from Heaven”) and Javier Bardem (“Before Night Falls”).