10th Queer Lion Award Lineup Update 2

Award organizers were supposed to announce films next Monday, August 22 but today there are some films listed and even when do not know if is the complete list, I'm in the mood of sharing the films that will or could be considered for the Venice Film Festival LGBT award.

Before checking the list, let's find out who are going to decide the winning film (or films?).

Jury
President: Cecilia Ermini, film critic and programmer, Italy
Rich Cline, film critic, UK
Daniel N, Casagrande, founder of Queer Lion Award, journalist, Italy

The following are the films in today's list. Next Monday could modify list according to what organizers do as perhaps they could add more films and/or short films. If find which LGBT interest the film has will add info.

Was reading in facebook and twitter the award publications and seems this is the complete list and there will be no award for short films. Still, according to the official site, seems on Monday there will be an official award presentation by Casagrande as well as will publish the events around the award, so will update post, if applicable.

My spontaneous reaction to list is that there are two films with clear interest and both are with gay-interest, one absolutely calls my attention for the director and the most amazing cinematography of Iceland settings; the other is Italian and well not really calls my attention (lol!) but wonder if the award will not go to any of these two films as whatever LGBT interest the other films have, seem will be of the not-so-pleasant to watch characters and storyline. Sigh.

Monday August 22, 2016 Update

No, there are no changes to the list, there are 10 films in competition for the 2016 Queer Lion and there will be NO award for short films. 

Today organizers published the foreword by Daniel N. Casagrande that you could read in English here. Still, there are some news worth sharing in this post and here is the cut/paste paragraph that talks about films NOT considered for the award but have some LGBT interest. Sorry, no explanations to why films are NOT included in the competition.

Among the films not competing for the Queer Lion Award, worth of a mention are: Era ieri by Valentina Pedicini, a lesbian short film presented in the section SIC@SIC; the ambiguous and mysterious Frantz by François Ozon; Isiko (The Wound) by John Trengove, a South African gay-themed film presented as a work in progress in the Final Cut workshop in Venice; the glamour and elegance of the documentary Franca: Chaos and Creation by Francesco Carrozzini, and the libertine, pre WWII Paris of Rebecca Zlotowski’s Planetarium starring Natalie Portman and Louis Garrel and co-written by Robin Campillo.

Most interesting is to learn that the Queer Lion Award is given to the "Best Film with Homosexual & Queer Culture Themes". This is new to me as older definition was longer and perhaps more to the essence of LGBT cinema; but well, is a great summary that explains not much as if something is really diverse and engulfs so many cultural aspects is the so-called Homosexual & Queer culture. Sigh.

Wednesday, August 24 Update

A few minutes ago got the following email from Daniel N. Casagrande with some comments about why above films were not considered. Here is the copy/paste of the email.

Hi,

At the request of the direction of the Venice Film Festival we only consider the medium and feature films, so movies longer less than 30’ can not compete.

FRANTZ is not in competition because the gay subject is never made explicit, any homosexual relationship (if there ever was) is never discussed, mentioned, everything is subtext, it's all about the "not told" and the "not shown"; The most attentive LGBT audience will see (maybe) all of this, the remaining 95% of the audience will see another movie.

The documentary on Francesco Carrozzini, that concern the fashion world, is definitely interesting for the LGBT public, but it has nothing to do with homosexual themes.

PLANETARIUM has only one sequence in a gay bar in the Paris of 1937.

ISIKO is a work in progress, will go to Venice in a single pass in a hall with 120 seats only for buyers and producers, we were explicitly asked not to add it in the competition because it's not finished yet.

Thanks for your attention.
Daniel...

We thank Mr. Casagrande communication that clarifies doubts that many of us had, including those that asked me directly. Most important, we have info to consider for future editions of this award.

From Venezia 73

Ang babaeng humayo (The Woman Who Left) by Lav Diaz with Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz (Philippines, 226’)

Synopsis: For Horacia Somorostro, living has become a veritable reclusion perpetua, an imprisonment. Life’s spins and randomness has been very difficult, vicious and inexplicable for her. The year is 1997. Princess Diana dies in a violent car crash. The world is saddened by the death of Mother Theresa. And the Philippines is gripped with fear. It has become the kidnap capital of Asia.

Director Lav Diaz's drama examines economic disparity in modern Filipino society through the eyes of a woman released from prison 30 years after being framed and wrongly convicted.

Director's Statement: “Existence is fragile” says Lav Diaz, “At the end of the day, we really don’t know anything”. A simple, yet complex story; a work about human existence, which raises the question “where does logic figure in all of this?” A film that seeks to push cinema towards its deeper and grander end: to find answers to the philosophical questions that each viewer asks himself. The setting in Mindoro, a province of the Philippines of which Charo Santos-Concio is a native, made the shooting even more authentic than the theme of the film could have.



La Región Salvaje (The Untamed) by Amat Escalante with Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio (Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, 100’)

Synopsis from Biennale: A social parable that focuses on Mexico, but also wishes to be universal. A more metaphysical film than Amat Escalante's previous film Heli (2013, Best Director at Cannes). A story about falling in love and vanishing illusions in a highland city in Mexico. Veronica (Simone Bucio) goes down to find the point of impact of a meteorite that crashed and altered the configuration of the area. In the same way, she will change the lives of Angel (Jesùs Mesa) and Alejandra (Ruth Ramos), a young couple that puts its determination to the test as they try, with their two children, to overcome adversity.

Synopsis from San Sebastian fest: Young mother Alejandra is a working housewife, raising two boys with her husband Angel in a small city. Her brother Fabien works as a nurse in a local hospital. Their provincial lives are upset with the arrival of the mysterious Veronica. Sex and love can be fragile in certain regions where strong family values, hypocrisy, homophobia and male chauvinism exist. Veronica convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems.



Amat Escalante is MUST-BE-SEEN for me and no matter what his previous films have told in their stories nor the extreme violence they could show, I'll will watch his films as they're mesmerizing. Still can't imagine a film by him with some LGBT interest and if have to push my imagination then I see something that will not be pleasant to watch; somehow suspect film could have some lesbian interest ... but not sure at all.

Questi Giorni by Giuseppe Piccioni with Margherita Buy, Filippo Timi (Italy, 120’)

Synopsis from Biennale: Questi Giorni is the story of a group of college-age girls from the provinces, an age in which decisions about the future become more pressing, and can no longer be delayed. A provincial Italian town. Inside the old city walls, in late-night forays along the seafront, in the enchantment of a temporary incursion into nature, the four girls play out their daily rituals and nurture their expectations; their friendship has not sprung from overwhelming passion, shared interests or great ideals. They are bound not by affinity but by habit, by occasional enthusiasm, by guileless clashes, and feelings they cultivate in secret. Yet their bond is as unique and inimitable as the days they travel together to Belgrade, where they will find a mysterious friend and an unlikely job opportunity.



The obvious implication is that film has some lesbian interest and probably does so, but there is no clear info -yet- anywhere.

From Orizzonti

Boys in the Trees by Nicholas Verso with Toby Wallace, Gulliver McGrath (Australia, 2016)

Synopsis: Halloween 1997 – the last night of high school for Corey, Jango and their skater gang, The Gromits. Childhood is over and adult life beckons. But for Corey, his past has some unfinished business. When he encounters Jonah, a former childhood friend but now victimised by Jango’s cruel streak, Corey takes pity on him and agrees to walk him home for old time’s sake. What starts off as a normal walk through empty suburban streets descends into something darker and magical, as trip through their memories and ghosts of the past, and Corey is surprised to discover how much he still has in common with his abandoned friend. But on the night of the grave’s delight, even the most buried truths will find a way of coming to life.

Best Narrative Screenplay (Unproduced) award winner at the 2011 New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Imagine film has gay interest; but, no, I'm not sure.



From Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days)

Hjartasteinn (Heartstone) by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson with Søren Malling, Gunnar Jónsson (Denmark, Iceland, 129’)

Synopsis: A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it’s time to leave the playground and face the acrimony of adulthood.

Director statement: Heartstone is a personal story based on my experience growing up in a small fishing village. The core of the film is a strong, beautiful friendship between two boys, and how their environment and inner conflict drive them apart, before the bond they share manages to reunite them again. The village is a place full of contrats, where kids discover how nature and people can be both amazingly beautiful and incredibly cruel. As a kid, I wished I could show the grown-ups around me how our world really felt, and that's what I want to show as a filmmaker: because the years of youth reflect our lives in clear, beautiful, and sometimes harsh manner.



Has to have gay interest, don't you think so too?

Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis with Angela Fontana, Marianna Fontana (Italy, 100’)

Synopsis: Viola and Dasy are a pair of conjoined twins who sing at weddings and parties and manage to support their entire family with their performances. It all works, until they realize that separation is a real option. All they want is normal lives: eating ice cream, traveling, dancing, making love, drinking wine without worrying about their other half getting drunk... A gay couple, very close to the sisters, is among the characters we will meet throughout their story.



Seems film has secondary gay interest.

Pamilya ordinaryo (Ordinary People) di Eduardo Roy Jr. con Ronwaldo Martin, Hasmine Killip (Filippine, 107’) (T)

Synopsis: A family portrait of Jane, sixteen, and her boyfriend, Aries, making a living out of stealing on the chaotic streets of Manila. Fate hits back at them when, one month after having become parents, their child is stolen by a transgender who wants to sell it to another couple. In an effort to get the baby back, the couple will be forced to take extreme measures.



From Settimana Internazionale della Critica (Venice International Film Critics Week)

Jours de France by Jérôme Reybaud with Pascal Cervo, Arthur Igual (France, 141’) (G)

Synopsis: A man leaves everything behind to travel aimlessly through France, letting himself be guided only by the people and landscapes he encounters: four days and four nights of wandering, during which his lover tries to locate him via Grindr, a smartphone dating app.



Le ultime cose by Irene Dionisio with Fabrizio Falco, Christina Rosamilia (Italy, France, Switzerland, 85’) (T)

Synopsis: In Torino, a bittersweet crowd is bringing its own belongings to a pawn shop, waiting for a ransom or the final auction. Between the thousands of faces that tell the human inventory of the crisis, three stories intertwine unconsciously in the thin line of moral debt. Sandra, a young trans, in order to escape her past sells her fur coat. Her gaze will cross Stefano’s, a novice who just started working at the bank, and who drags her towards a tender obsession. Michele, a retired porter, asks for a loan to a family member, who will turn out to be fatally the wrong person to ask a favor from.



From Cinema nel Giardino

L’estate addosso (Summertime) by Gabriele Muccino with Taylor Frey, Joseph Haro (Italy, 103’) (G)

Synopsis: 18 year-old Marco, in the summer of high-school final exams, unexpectedly ends up on a road trip to San Francisco with Mary, a classmate of his, nicknamed ‘the nun’. Mary’s company is, to Marco, a real catastrophe. When in California, the two of them will be guests of Matt and Paul, a young gay couple: the four will have to face problems and prejudices and will live an experience that will forever change their lives.



To check list at official site go here. Check available info plus trailers @MOC

Queer Lion Award 2016 will be handed out on Friday, September 9 at 7:00PM at Villa degli Autori, headquarter of Venice Days-Giornate degli Autori, in a ceremony where the most important collateral awards, such as Fedeora Award, Label Europa Cinemas, Venice Days Award, BNL Audience Critics’ Week prize will be announced.

On the night of Friday, September 9, to celebrate 10 years of the Queer Lion, QL Closing Party will take place in the park of Nicelli airport in Lido di Venezia, with free entrance and a shuttle bus service from Cittadella del Cinema (the area of Casino and Palazzo del Cinema). Music by Brian dj from Queever disco club in Turin.

Video

For obvious reasons I didn't particularly like the promotional video but well, check it to form your own opinion. Sigh.

73rd Venice International Film Festival Lineup

The complete line-up of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival was announced during the press conference that took place on Thursday, July 28th in Rome. The 73rd Venice International Film Festival will take place on the Lido from August 31st to September 10th, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Believe must of us were expecting a very strong lineup this year as already knew the films that didn't make it to the other two main competitive festivals and yes, there is no disappointment, the lineup is massive, strong and many "gods" of cinema will grace Venice with their latest oeuvres. Bravo!!!

Still there are some surprises, besides those already mentioned in previous posts, like for example, Isabelle Huppert in a short film in the Orizzonti section, Keaunu Reeves, Diego Luna and Jim Carrey in the same movie (?!) and film is about cannibals (!!!), or the ones definitively not positive like for example, where latest films by Kim Ki-Duk or Katell Quillévéré ended (sigh).

But the best news, the one no one will take away from me is my glorious joy of being able to see Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander walking the red carpet (lol). On other news, both Amy Adams as Natalie Portman are in two movies, Amy in two in competition and Natalie one in competition and one out of competition.

According to the press release there are 55 new feature films in the Official Selection divided as follows: 19 in Venezia73 Competition, 17 in Out of Competition (7 of which are documentaries) and 19 in Orizzonti. There are 16 new short films, 16 in Orizzonti (14 in competition and 2 out of competition). In Venice Classics there are 20 feature films, 1 restored short film and 10 documentaries about cinema. Most interesting is to find that organizers viewed 2,901 films of which 1,468 are feature films and 1,433 short films.

Venezia 73
International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres

Opening Film: La La Land, Damien Chazelle, USA
Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left), Lav Diaz, Philippines
Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, USA
Brimstone, Martin Koolhoven, Netherlands, Germany, France, UK and Sweden
El Ciudadano Ilustre, Mariano Cohn and Gastòn Duprat, Argentina and Spain
(*) El Cristo Ciego, Christopher Murray, Chile and France
Frantz, François Ozon, France and Germany
Jackie, Pablo Larraín, USA and Chile
La Región Salvaje (The Untamed), Amat Escalante, Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany and Norway
Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez (The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez), Wim Wenders, France and Germany
Na mliječnom putu (On the Milky Road), Emir Kusturica, Serbia, UK and USA
Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford, USA
Piuma, Roan Johnson, Italy
Questi Giorni, Giuseppe Piccioni, Italy
Spira Mirabilis, Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Italy and Switzerland (documentary)
Рай Rai (Paradise), Andrei Konchalovsky, Russia and Germany
The Bad Batch, Ana Lily Amirpour, USA
The Light Between Oceans, Derek Cianfrance, USA, Australia and New Zealand
Une vie (A Woman's Life), Stéphane Brizé, France and Belgium
Voyage of Time, Terrence Malick, USA and Germany (documentary)

Venezia 73 Jury
President: Sam Mendes, director, UK
Nina Hoss, actress, Germany
Chiara Mastroianni, actress, France
Joshua Oppenheimer, director, USA
Lorenzo Vigas, director, Venezuela
Zhao Wei, actress, China
Laurie Anderson, artist, singer, director and writer, USA
Giancarlo De Cataldo, magistrate, writer, playwright and screenwriter, Italy

Out of Competition
Important works by directors already established in previous editions of the Festival

Closing Film: The Magnificent Seven, Antoine Fuqua, USA
A Jamais (Never Ever), Benoît Jacquot, France and Portugal
American Anarchist, Charlie Siskel, USA
Assalto al Cielo, Francesco Munzi, Italy (documentary)
Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa, Germany (documentary)
Gantz:O, Yasuhi Kawamura, Japan (animation)
Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson, USA and Australia
I Called Him Morgan, Kasper Collin, Sweden and USA (documentary)
L'uomo che non cambiò la storia (The Man Who Didn't Change History), Enrico Caria, Italy (documentary)
밀정 Miljeong (The Age of Shadows), Kim Jee Woon, South Korea
Monte (The Mountain), Ammir Naderi, Italy, USA and France
One More Time with Feeling, Andrew Dominik, UK
Our War, Bruno Chiaravalloti, Claudio Jampaglia, and Benedetta Argentieri, Italy and USA (documentary)
Planetarium, Rebecca Zlotowski, France and Belgium
Safari, Ulrich Seidl, Austria and Denmark (documentary)
The Bleeder, Philippe Falardeau, USA and Canada
The Journey, Nick Hamm, UK
The Young Pope (Episodes I and II), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy, France, Spain and USA (TV miniseries)
Tommaso, Kim Rossi Stuart, Italy

Check available info and trailers @MOC

Orizzonti
An international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema

Feature Films
(*) Boys in the Trees, Nicholas Verso, Australia
Dawson City: Frozen Time, Bill Morrison, USA and France (documentary)
(*) Die Einsiedler, Ronny Trocker, Germany and Austria
(*) 愚行録 Gukôroku, Kei Ishikawa, Japan
Home, Fien Troch, Belgium
(*) Il più grande sogno (I Was a Dreamer), Michele Vannucci, Italy
(*) Kékszakállú, Gastón Solnicki, Argentina
Koca Dünya (Big Big World), Reha Erdem, Turkey
King of the Belgians, Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, Belgium, Netherlands and Bulgaria
Ku Qian (Bitter Money), Bing Wang, Hong Kong and France (documentary)
Laavor et Hakim (Through the Wall), Rama Burshtein, Israel
Liberami, Federica di Giacomo, Italy and France (documentary)
مالاریا Malaria, Parviz Shahbazi, Iran
(*) Maudite Poutine, Karl Lemieux, Canada
Réparer les vivants (The Heart), Katell Quillévéré, France and Belgium
São Jorge (Saint George), Marco Martins, Portugal and France
(*) Tarde Para La Ira (The Fury of a Patient Man), Raúl Arévalo, Spain
White Sun, Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal, USA, Qatar and Netherlands

Special Screening Out of Competition
Dark Night, Tim Sutton, USA

Short Films
500,000 Pee (500,000 Years), Chai Siris, Thailand, 15'
Amalimbo, Juan Pablo Libossart, Sweden and Estonia, 15' (animation)
Ce qui nous éloigne, Wei Hu, France, 18'
Colombi, Luca Ferri, Italy, 20'
Dadyaa, Bibhusan Basnet and Pooja gurung, Nepal and France, 17'
Good News, Giovanni Fumu, South Korea and Italy, 17'
La Voz Perdida, Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay, Venezuela and Cuba, 11'
Le Reste est l'oeuvre de l'homme, Doria Achour, France and Tunisia, 14'
Midwinter, Jake Mahaffy, USA and New Zealand, 17'
Molly Bloom, Chiara Caselli, Italy, 20'
On The Origin of Fear, Bayu Prihantoro Filemon, Indonesia, 12'
Prima Noapte (First Night), Andrei Tanase, Romania and Germany, 17'
Ruah, Flurin Giger, Switzerland, 18'
Samedi Cinema, Mamadou Dia, Senegal, 11'
Srečno, Orlo! (Good Luck, Orlo!), Sara Kern, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria, 14'
Stanza 52, Maurizio Braucci, Italy, 13"

Orizzonti Jury
President: Robert Guédiguian, director, France
Jim Hoberman, film critic and historian, USA
Nelly Karim, actress, Egypt
Valentina Lodovini, actress, Italy
Moon So-ri, actress, South Korea
José Maria (Chema) Prado, film critic and scholar, Spain
Chaitanya Tamhane, director, India

Check available info and trailers @MOC

Cinema nel Giardino
The new section with films, talks, and visions under the Casino

Franca: Chaos and Creation, Francesco Carrozzini, Italy and USA (documentary)
그물 Geumul (The Net), Kim Ki-Duk, South Korea
In Dubious Battle, James Franco, USA
Inseparables, Marcos Carnevale, Argentina
L'Estate Addosso (Summertime), Gabriele Muccino, Italy
My Art, Laurie Simmons, USA
Robinù, Michele Santoro, Italy (documentary)
The Secret Life of Pets, Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney, USA (3D animation)

Biennale College - Cinema
Higher-education training workshop for the development and production of micro-budget feature-length films

La Soledad, Jorge Thielen Armand, Venezuela
Mukti Bhawan (Hotel Salvation), Shubhashish Bhutiani, India
Orecchie (Ears), Alessandro Aronadio, Italy
Una Hermana (One Sister), Sofia Brockenshire, Argentina

Special Screenings

El vendedor de Orquídeas, Lorenzo Vigas, Venezuela and Mexico (documentary)
Rem, Thomas Koolhaas, USA (documentary)
Spes Contre Spem - Liberi Dentro, Ambrogio Crespi, Italy (documentary)

Venice Classics
A selection of restored classic films and documentaries on cinema. To check films in the section go official site here.

Debut films competing for the Lion of the Future -“Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
There are twenty-two (22) films competing for this award, 1 in Venezia 73, 7 in Orizzonti, 7 in SIC and 7 in Venice Days. All films are identified by a preceding (*).

(*) Competing for the Lion of the Future Award

Lion of the Future - Debut film Jury
President: Kim Rossi Stuart, actor and director, Italy
Rosa Bosch, producer, Spain and UK
Brady Corbet, actor and director, USA
Pilar López de Ayala, actress, Spain
Serge Toubiana, film critic, France

Tributes
The 73rd Venice International Film Festival will be dedicated to two great directors who have recently passed away: Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Cimino. The former changed the way we look at and reflect upon images in motion, the latter would have changed the face of American cinema even more than he actually did before he was deprived of the possibility of expressing himself fully.

A double Tribute will therefore be held during the event. There will be a screening of what is one of Michael Cimino's finest and, in part, most underrated films: Year of the Dragon (1985), with Mickey Rourke.

For Abbas Kiarostami, a special program will be shown composed of an unreleased digital short film from the series 24 Frames (which the Iranian director was still working on), and THIS IS MY FILM: 76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Kiarostami, a collage film made for the occasion by Seifollah Samadian, Abbas' loyal friend and historic assistant, who for over twenty-five years filmed his work and gathered his thoughts about cinema, photography, art and life.

Interesting Data

In the 2016 edition there will be three (3) Golden Lion winning directors attending, Lorenzo Vigas, Kim Ki-Duk and Wim Enders; one Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize winner director, Andrei Konchalovski; two Silver Lion for Best Director winners, Andrei Konchalovski and Emir Kusturica; one Special Jury Prize winner director, Ulrich Seidl, one Lion of the Future award winner director, Emir Kusturica, two Orizzonti Award for Best Film winner directors, Lav Diaz and Wang Bing; plus 2 Academy Award wining directors, Paolo Sorrentino and Mel Gibson.

So, indeed there is a relevant participation of established directors that have won an award at the oldest fest in the world, but perhaps more interesting is that there are twelve (12) directors who are participating for the first time in the Competition. They are the following:

Damien Chazelle, Ana Lily Amirpour, Stéphane Brizé, Derek Cianfrance, Mariano Cohn e Gastón Duprat, Lav Diaz, Massimo D’Anolfi e Martina Parenti, Amat Escalante, Roan Johnson, Martin Koolhoven, Christopher Murray and Denis Villeneuve

To check the many movie posters of Venezia 73 go to my pinterest site here.

Videos (in Italian)

Paolo Baratta



Alberto Barbera

13th Venice Days Lineup

A few minutes ago Roberto Barzanti, President of the Venice Days Association, and Giorgio Gosetti, Artistic Director, announced the Giornate Degli Autori official selection at a press conference at Casa del Cinema in Rome.

This selection is strongly characterized - observes General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti - by the female creativity that flows through most of the films we've seen and most of those that have been chosen. It reflects the way that for years now, we've placed the female world - also through our work with creative partner Miu Miu on the ‘Women's Tales' project - at the center of our research. But it's also a strong sign of the vitality and rejuvenation of the art of film, which, by no coincidence, is confirmed in the exceptional number and quality of first and second works we believe in".

My first impression tells me the selections is strong on women directors (or "female creativity" as Gosetti put it) and has a strong Nordic Cinema flavor (fabulous!) but let me go deep into each film to make up my mind and perhaps confirm my first reactions

Ever since the first edition, Venice Days have come to represent a real alternative to the Festival's official areas and an ideal and informal place for authors, producers, distributors and journalists to meet and discuss their ideas in an informal environment.

This year, twenty nationalities will be represented (including those of the authors), with seven first works, seven female authors, three Italian films made with financial support from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, eleven titles competing for the Venice Days Award, which is awarded by a jury of twenty-eight young European film enthusiasts, chosen in partnership with the European Parliament and Europa Cinemas and coordinated by the director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Karel Och

Spontaneously my most positive reaction has been to the section poster with a beautiful image, been looking for info about the poster and IF find info, will share.

The 12 films selected from all over the world, in addition to other events and any special screenings, are screened in the theaters provided by the Venice Film Festival. As you will see, there are only 11 films announced today, so imagine soon we will learn one more film even when there are no news about it today. Still we know that a "surprise" film will be announced at a later date along the closing film, so we can expect 2 more films in this section.

The Official Awards of Venice Days are:
Venice Days Award, given by the Official Jury of Venice Days, headed by a filmmaker and composed by the participants to the program 28 Times Cinema of the European Parliament. The award consists is accompanied by a cash prize of €20,000, to be split equally between the filmmaker and the film's international distributor, who agrees to use the sum received to promote the winning film internationally.
BNL People's Choice Award for the films of the Official Selection, offered by BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas, Main Sponsor of Venice Days.
Label Europa Cinemas, dedicated to films produced and co-produced in Europe. The Label was created by a network of high-caliber European exhibitors, with the support of the EU's MEDIA Program. It consists of a financial contribution towards distribution and promotion, as well as a guarantee for the winning film that it will be shown in the cinemas belonging to the network.

All the films participating to the Days are also in competition for the parallel awards, with a ceremony due to take place on the last day of the Festival. First films are eligible for the "Luigi De Laurentiis Award Lion of the Future".

Most interesting is that up-to-today with only 2 sections announcing their lineups, there are quite a few LGBT films. So, we can foresee an interesting competition for the Queer Lion! Fantastic.

Official Selection

(*) Hjartasteinn (Heartstone), Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Iceland and Denmark
(*) Hounds of Love, Ben Young, Australia
Indivisibili (Indivisible), Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
(*) Ne gledaj mi u pijat (Quit Staring at My Plate), Hana Jušić, Croatia and Denmark
Pamilya ordinaryo, Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines
(*) Pariente (Guilty Men), Iván D. Gaona, Colombia
(*) Polina, danser sa vie, Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj, France
(*) La Ragazza del Mondo (Wordly Girl), Marco Danieli, Italy
(*) Sameblod (Sami Blood), Amanda Kernell, Sweden, Denmark and Norway
The War Show, Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon, Denmark and Finland (documentary)
再見瓦城 Zai Jian Wa Cheng (The Road to Mandalay), Midi Z, Myanmar, Taiwan, China, France and Germany

(*) Competing for the Lion of the Future Award

Official Selection Jury
President: Bruce La Bruce, director, screenwriter, Canada

Special Events
Closing Film: Ombre dal fondo (The War Within), Paola Piacenza, Italy (documentary)
Always Shine, Sophia Takal, USA
Caffè (Coffee), Cristiano Bortone, Italy, Belgium and China
Il Profumo del Tempo delle Favole, Mauro Caputo, Italy (documentary)
Rocco, Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai, France (documentary)
Vangelo, Pippo Delbono, Italy and Belgium
You Never Had It. An Evening with Bukowski, Matteo Borgardt, USA, Mexico and Italy (documentary short)

Miu Miu Women's Tales
Women Tales #11: Seed, Naomi Kawase, Italy and Japan
Women Tales #12: That One Day, Crystal Moselle, Italy, USA and UK

To check info and available trailers go @MOC.

On other news, every year, Venice Days reserves a special part of its program for exploring the dramatically changing film and audiovisual industry in China in relation to European and Italian creativity. The China Film Forum has, thanks to this partnership, become a key event for developing ideas and forms of expression shared by cultures as different as they are in favor of increasingly close cooperation. What makes the third edition of the China Film Forum so special is that it is the fruit of a partnership between Venice Days and international network Bridging the Dragon, together with Doc/it. The event is scheduled to take place at the Venice Film Festival on 2 September, and will center around themes, stories and creativity linking Europe and China.

About Miu Miu Women's Tales

‘A' as in Agnès, the irresistible muse of an unforgettable season in film history and the all-time best in film. ‘A' as in Alice, the vital exponent of a new season in Italian cinema and a female creativity that doesn't cramp its own style and doesn't hide, proud of its own identity. Alice Rohrwacher gave us Chapter 9 of "Women's Tales"; Agnès Varda brings us Chapter 10, the one that, in a sense, sums up the spirit of and the idea behind Miu Miu's cultural partnership with Venice Days.

In the last few years, "Miu Miu Women's Tales" has invited filmmakers from around the world, endowed with their distinct sensibilities and styles, to celebrate the ‘second sex' in the 21st century, probing it with a critical eye but also with the camaraderie of fellow travelers in an expressive universe that includes Zoe Cassavetes, Lucrecia Martel, Giada Colagrande, Massy Tadjedin, Ava DuVernay, Hiam Abbass, So Yong Kim, Miranda July, and now Alice Rohrwacher and Agnès Varda.

Their perspectives have embraced the infinite complexities and contradictions of women today, touching their hearts, prompting them to reflect. In this series of short films, the outfits designed by Miu Miu are assigned starring roles alongside celebrity actresses and models, providing a sort of counterpoint to the narrative. Power, desire, vanity, sophistication, rituals, rules, dreams, nightmares, visions and fairy tales: the myriad facets of a woman's routine are all to be found in even the tinest detail of her day.

For this very reason, Miu Miu and Venice Days conceive their partnership as something that goes beyond the exact moment of a screening and the glamour that an event like the Venice Film Festival entails. So our days at Venice Days are punctuated by dialogues between remarkable women working in film and the arts, filmmakers sharing their experiences, and glimpses of "little utopias" of women's creativity. As the initiative's slogan has proclaimed from the start, "Women's Tales" is no "reserve" for an "endangered species", but a practical demonstration that even amidst the buzz and the hype of a major event like the festival, it is possible to find room for a more profound look at the themes underlying at once our different cultures and our common ground, and their cinematic frontiers. The female "slant" is no rhetorical device thrown in between one film and the next, but a trademark creativity, a flag proudly flown.

Believe Naomi Kawase needs no introduction to blog readers but let me remind you who Crystal Moselle is. She propelled to international much-deserved fame with her outstanding documentary about the Angulo brothers, The Wolfpack, which I enjoyed beyond expectations for the amazing story but also the awesome storytelling style. So I'm looking forward to see what she does next and her short film in the Women's Tales collection of short films. Moselle short has not been released yet, but now you can enjoy Kawase's short if you haven't seen it yet.

Seed by Naomi Kawase



Naomi Kawase describes Sakura Ando, the lead character in her film, as being "more like a fairy. A mysterious creature". Seed is the story of the journey this girl takes from the enchanted nature of Nara to the chaos of Tokyo, and the encounters she has along the way.

A boy offers her the gift of an apple, which she in turn gives to a homeless man, who proffers her a soft piece of chiffon fabric in exchange. Moving like a tree that sways in the wind, the girl expresses a spirit that secretly runs through places and living things. The eleventh film commissioned by Miu Miu Women's Tales was directed by the multiple Cannes award-winning Japanese director Naomi Kawase.

Her documentaries and films blend nature and tradition, the personal and the poetic, and include An (2015), Still the Water (2014), The Mourning Forest (2007) and Suzaku (1997). Seed is also a sentimental portrait of Asian femininity, which Kawase depicts as "primitive, primal and erotic at the same time". The soundtrack was composed by the band Sakanation, famous for their fusion of folk melodies and artful lyrics.

31st Venice International Film Critics' Week Lineup

The week starts early with the release of the 2016 Settimana Internazionale della Critica lineup announcement for the section that will run from August 31 to September 10.

As we know la Settimana is an independent section of the Biennale exclusively dedicated to first-time directors' full-length films and every year screens seven (7) films in competition.

In this edition besides the seven films in competition there are two special events out of competition, the opening and the closing film. Will also list the seven Italian short films plus one special event -a short by none other than Marco Bellocchio- that make the selection of the SIC@SIC 2016 presented by Venice Critics' Week and Instituto Luce Cinecittà.

Feature Films

In Competition
(*) Akher Wahed Fina (The Las of Us), Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia, Qatar, UAE and Lebanon
(*) Drum, Keywan Karimi, France and Iran
(*) Jours de France (Four Days in France), Jérôme Reybaud, France
(*) Los Nadie (The Nobodies), Juan Sebastián Mesa, Colombia
(*) Prank, Vincent Biron, Canada
(*) Singing in Graveyards, Bradley Liew, Malaysia and Philippines
(*) Le Ultime Cose, Irene Dionisio, Italy, Switzerland and France

 (*) Competing for Lion of the Future Award

Special Events Out of Competition
Opening Film: Prevenge, Alice Lowe, UK
Closing Film: Are We Not Cats, Xander Robin, USA

SIC@SIC Italian Short Films
Alice, Chiara Leonaradi, Italy, 14'
Atlante 1783 (Atlas 1783), Maria Giovanna Cicciari, Italy, 20' (documentary short)
Colazione sull'erba (Lunch on the Grass), Edoardo Ferraro, Italy, 14'
dodici pagine (Twelve Pages), Riccardo Caruso, Roberto Tenace, Luigi Lombardi and Elisabetta Falanga, Italy, 13'
Era ieri (It Was Yesterday), Valentina Pedicini, Italy, 15'
Notturno (Nocturne), Fatima Bianchi, Italy, 15'
Vanilla, Rosella Inglese, Italy, 13'

Special Event
Opening Short: Pagliacci (Clowns), Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 18'

If you wish to learn more about the short films, including one that has lesbian interest theme, see photo stills and read the statement published in the short films press release go here.

To check info and available trailers go @MOC.

In the feature films press release there is very long statement by Giona A. Nazzaro, the General Delegate of the fest section that I'm reproducing here as believe there are some interesting food for thought elements.  This is the complete statement.

Year One. Cinema is always at Year One. Only numbers and statistics believe in its crisis (that is not really there, but we can see it). The cinema for which is worth entering the field for, is still being made. It’s out there, you just need to see it. The Venice International Film Critics’ Week – a place where authors such as Olivier Assayas, Mike Leigh, Harmony Kornie, Kevin Reynolds, Pedro Costa, Antonio Capuano and Michel Bena where discovered–, has always been a privileged interlocutor of this renewal.

Festivals are an object of periodical and not particularly stimulating discussions that interrogate their own usefulness. They should rather be a narration-place about cinema, and not merely a dull marketplace of available cinematographic goods (the eclecticism is rather overvalued); an arena where a certain thinking is constructed, reflecting on what can still be done with the moving images and where an idea, hopefully not a banal one, is put forth about the state of the world we are living in.

This is not a new idea. Rossellini used to do it. And if we can still dare to get inspiration from just one of the traits of Rossellini’s poetics, that should be the complete absence of any cinematic nostalgia; the fact that he was always in the present tense, in the unfolding of history. He was so present in the unfolding of his time, that he became maybe the only filmmaker that thought about the future of cinema (and not only). That’s it. The determination of being present, without surrendering to nostalgia or mythology. This is the first propulsive drive of this 31st edition of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week.

Today’s cinema, made today, for today’s eyes. Because only the present, that manifests itself in multiple forms that cannot be grasped, can allow us to imagine a form of cinema that goes back to exploring our relationship with what happens on the screen and around it.

The selected films for this edition, picked among more than 500 titles submitted (there would be enough for at least two selections…), are characterized by a “filmic pleasure”, a “pleasure” that is activated through putting us back into the game against visual conventions. A “pleasure” whose founding elements are risk and astonishment. From Prevenge – a genius post-feminist slasher movie directed by Alice Lowe, known for her roles in Edgar Wright and Ben Wheatley’s films – to Le ultime cose by Irene Dionisio – tense re-visitation of neorealist humanism – we can see a remapping not of things already seen but of those yet to be seen.

Keywan Karimi, Iranian filmmaker sentenced to one year of jail and 223 lashes for offending Islam, authors a metaphysical and expressionist noir with Drum, while Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisian documentary filmmaker and video artist with his The Last of Us, re-launches with great audacity an abstract and experimental cinema which is adventurous and honestly even science fictional.

Because deep inside, cinema is by definition, a young form of art, as it should be. But not only in a perspective of age. One has only to look at Los Nadie by Juan Sebastián Mesa, shot in seven days throughout the most inaccessible streets of Medellin, or Prank by Vincent Biron, former director of photography of Denis Côté, a parable of hard-core post-salingerian nihilism.

And cinema is also, and always, a reclaiming (or loosing again…) of one’s place in the world. Jours de France by Jerome Reybaud hypothesizes a sensual sentimental voyage using an exceptional navigator such as Grindr, to find again the forgotten name of things.

Pepe Smith, a Filipino rock legend, is probably the most surprising presence. The main character of Singing in Graveyards, together with Lav Diaz, offers an image and a mirror of the complex relationship of the characters with modernity and democracy in their country.

Finally, as a closing film, we present Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin, a visceral melodramatic horror, a dark fairytale articulated through the music of Funkadelik, Yvonne Fair, Lightning Bolt and Albert Ayler. A great surprise coming from the US that manages to reconnect itself with the new wave of the early 1980s, reinventing instinctive impulses and dreamlike calligraphies.

Let’s not forget the wonderful and wild group of Italian short filmmakers of SIC@SIC, a synergy activated in collaboration with Instituto Luce-Cinecittà. Authors launched to the conquest of the future, armed with their gaze only: surprising, rigorous, audacious, tender, provocative, radical and generous. Sponsored by Marco Bellocchio, the youngest and most vital of the Italian maestros. Take note today of the names of Chiara Leonardi and Edoardo Ferraro, Valentina Pedicini and Rossella Inglese, Maria Giovanna Cicciari, Fatima Bianchi and the collective Caruso, Falanga, Lombardi, Tenace.

The 31st edition of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week is not a closed proposition, but an invitation to a voyage. We put forth today the premises to imagine the cinema that is still to be invented.

#Venezia73 News 2

The calm before the storm is coming to an end next week when fest organizers announce #Venezia73 selection in the many sections of the 2016 festival and to seal the calm, today was the announcement of the juries.

There are some very pleasant news as during the festival we will be able to often see great European actresses like Nina Hoss and none other than Chiara Mastroianni plus the Golden Lion winner of last year is now part of the Venezia 73 jury. But before getting into the juries for Venezia 73, Orizzonti, Opera Prima and Venezia Classici, will do an update on some of the news that were released since the last news blog post.

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jerzy Skolimowski Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement

French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski are the recipients of the Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.
The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon recommendation of the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera.

The Board of Directors has decided to award two Golden Lions for Career Achievement at every future edition of the Film Festival, starting this year. One will be given to a director or someone from the world of film production; the second will be awarded to an actor or an actress, i.e., to someone who belongs to the world of acting.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, an icon of French and international cinema, is one of the actors who best interpreted the hallmark modernity of the Nouvelle Vague in his representation of alienated characters, in Leda (À double tour, 1959) by Claude Chabrol; Breathless (1960) and Pierrot le Fou (1965, presented in Competition at the Venice Film Festival), both by Jean-Luc Godard; or Mississippi Mermaid (1969) by François Truffaut. In particular, in his portrayal of Michel Poiccard/László Kovács in Breathless, Belmondo brought to the fore the figure of the provocative and seductive antihero, a far cry from the Hollywood stereotypes on which Godard himself had based the character. His extroverted acting style secured him some of the best roles in French gangster movies, such as in The Big Risk (1960) by Claude Sautet, Le Doulos (1962) by Jean-Pierre Melville and Hit Man (1972) by José Giovanni, and he achieved enormous success in many of his later movies, from That Man from Rio (1964) by Philippe de Broca to The Night Caller (1975) by Henri Verneuil, from The Professional (1981) by Georges Lautner to Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988) by Claude Lelouch. Says Festival Director Alberto Barbera, “Thanks to his fascinating face, irresistible charm and extraordinary versatility, he has played roles in dramas, adventure movies and even comedies, making him a star who is universally respected, by committed directors and escapist cinema alike.”

Says Festival Director Alberto Barbera, “Jerzy Skolimowski is one of the most representative exponents of the modern cinema born during the nouvelles vagues of the 1960s. He and Roman Polanski are the two filmmakers who contributed most to the renewal of Polish cinema during that same period.” Polanski himself (who called him in to write the screenplay of his debut movie, Knife in the Water) predicted: “Skolimowski will stand head and shoulders above his generation.” Actually, the fifty year career of the “boxing poet” (as he was dubbed by Andrezj Munk, Skolimowski’s cinematographic “father”), during which he made seventeen feature-length films, has been anything but easy, and his opus was marked by continuous moves – from Poland to Belgium, from England to the United States, before returning to his homeland less than ten years ago. Although his body of works is seemingly stateless, due to heterogeneous and apparently dissimilar production styles, each one of his movies is actually highly personal and original. The trilogy he made in Poland during his debut years – Rysopis (1964), Walkover (1965) and Barrier (1966) - were to the Eastern Bloc countries what Godard’s earliest movies were to Western cinema, whereas his later masterpieces - The Departure (1967, Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival), Deep End (1970), The Shout (1978, Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival), Hands Up! (1981) and Moonlighting (1982, Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival) – are still top examples of a type of cinema which is modern, free and innovative, radically nonconformist and bold. The last films he made after returning to his homeland – Four Nights With Anna (2008), Essential Killing (2010, Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival), presented in competition at the Venice Film Festival as his following movie 11 Minutes (2015) – display an unexhausted and surprising capacity for renewal which rightfully places him among the most combative and original directors of contemporary cinema.

Pre-opening event of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival

Dedicated to the great director Luigi Comencini (1916 - 2007) on the centennial of his birth, the Pre-opening event of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival will be held on Tuesday August 30th at the Sala Darsena (Palazzo del Cinema) on the Lido.

Featured will be the screening of Comencini's masterpiece Tutti a casa (Everybody Go Home, Italy/France, 1960) in the copy digitally restored by Filmauro and CSC - Cineteca Nazionale di Roma, starring Alberto Sordi, Serge Reggiani, Carla Gravina and Eduardo De Filippo, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, with screenplay by Age and Scarpelli, winner at the time of two David di Donatello awards and one Nastro d'argento.

The restored version will be presented in its world premiere screening, remastered in 4K on the basis of the original negatives provided by Filmauro. The digital processing was performed in the laboratories of Cinecittà Digital Factory in Rome. The transfer to 35mm film was done in the laboratories of Augustus Color in Rome.

The restored films of Venezia Classici

Italian director Roberto Andò (The Confessions, Long Live Freedom, The Prince’s Manuscript) will chair the Jury of Cinema History Students which – for the fourth time – will award the Venezia Classici Award for the Bet Restored Film and the Best Documentary on Cinema.

The numerous restored masterpieces in the Venezia Classici section of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival include classic films by Robert Bresson, John Ford, Woody Allen, Nikita Michalkov, Akira Kurosawa, Louis Malle plus more, but none is so relevant -to me and world cinema- as the restoration of Stalker by Andrei Tarkovski. If you wish to check the list with all restored films go official site here.

As we know the Venezia Classici section will also feature the presentation of a selection of documentaries about cinema and its filmmakers; the complete list will be announced next Thursday along with the Official Selection.

The three international Juries of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival

Venezia 73

As we know, the President of the Jury is director Sam Mendes and here are the filmmakers that will help him to decide on the fest top awards.

German actress Nina Hoss, who works in both film and the theatre, won the Silver Bear as Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007 with Yella (2007) by Christian Petzold, a director with whom she has worked many times: in Jerichow (2008), screened in Competition in Venice, and in the recent Phoenix (2014), a performance for which she won many important international awards.

French actress Chiara Mastroianni, a famous star of European auteur films, who acted alongside her mother Catherine Deneuve at a very young age in Ma maison préférée by André Téchiné (1993, nominated at the César awards for Most Promising Actress). In 2010 she won the Excellence Award at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2014 she participated in the Venice International Film Festival with two films in Competition, Trois Coeurs by Benoît Jacquot and La Rançon de la gloire by Xavier Beauvois.

American artist, singer, director and writer Laurie Anderson, one of the most important and courageous exponents of the creative avant-garde in America today. She is renowned for her vocal and multimedia performances, which cross-pollinate art, theatre and experimental music. In 2015 she directed Heart of a Dog, screenedin Competition in Venice, which won unanimous critical acclaim around the world.

British actress Gemma Arterton moved into the limelight in 2008 when she appeared as a Bond Girl in the film Quantum of Solace by Marc Forster. In 2009 she won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer. The star of Tamara Drewe (2010) by Stephen Frears and of Byzantium (2012) by Neil Jordan, she has also appeared in major productions such as Prince of Persia (2010) by Mike Newell.

American director Joshua Oppenheimer, who attracted international attention with his two documentaries, both nominated for an Oscar, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), the latter in Competition at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Since then, the film has won 70 awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.

Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas, who won the Golden Lion for Best Film at last year's Venice International Film Festival with his debut film Desde allà, the first Latin-American director to win the most important prize on the Lido. The film was later screened at many international festivals and won many awards.

Chinese actress, director and singer Zhao Wei, who rose to international fame in the films of Stephen Chow, Ann Hui, He Ping, John Woo and Johnnie To. For her role in Dearest (2014) by Peter Chan, screened Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival, she won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2013 she made her debut as a director with So Young, the highest-grossing film ever in China for a female director.

The Italian magistrate, writer, playwright and screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo, author of the best-selling novel Romanzo criminale (2002) which inspired the film by Michele Placido (2005) and the television series by Stefano Sollima (2008). He is a two-time winner of the David di Donatello for the screenplays of Romanzo criminale, and of Noi credevamo (2010) by Mario Martone (which also won a Nastro d'argento for the screenplay).

The Jury will award the following official prizes to the feature films in Competition: Golden Lion for Best Film; Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize; Silver Lion for Best Director; Coppa Volpi for Best Actor; Coppa Volpi for Best Actress; “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress; Award for Best Screenplay; and the Special Jury Prize.

Orizzonti

The members of the international Jury of the Orizzonti section, in addition to its president, French director Robert Guédiguian, are:

American film critic and historian Jim Hoberman, long the "senior critic" of the "Village Voice" in New York, who writes a column in "The New York Times", and is one of the most influential voices in international film criticism. A teacher and exhibition curator, he has been a member of international juries and of the selection committee for the New York Film Festival. He has written thirteen books on cinema.

Egyptian actress Nelly Karim, who won the Best Actress Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2004 for My Soulmate by Khaled Youssef. In 2012, her performance in Cairo 678 by Mohamed Diab, won her the Best Actress Award at the Arab Film Festival. She took part in the penultimate film by Youssef Chahine, Alexandria...New York (2004).

Italian actress Valentina Lodovini, one of the most important actresses in Italian cinema in recent years, starting with her role as the star of La giusta distanza (2007) by Carlo Mazzacurati. Winner of the David di Donatello in 2010 for Benvenuti al Sud by Luca Miniero, in 2011 she starred in Cose dell’altro mondo by Francesco Patierno, presented at the Venice Film Festival.

The Korean actress and director Moon So-ri has set a milestone in Korean film history with her passionate acting in Lee Chang-dong's Oasis which earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Actress at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, for the first time as a Korean actress.

Spanish film critic and scholar José Maria (Chema) Prado, the long-standing director (since 1989) of the Filmoteca Española in Madrid. He has been a member of the jury at many international film festivals, including Cannes and Locarno, and has collaborated with the San Sebastian Festival. In 2015 he won the Premio Fénix por la Contribución a la Cultura Cinematográfica de Iberoamérica.

Indian director Chaitanya Tamhane, whose debut feature film, Court (2014), premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won the Lion of the Future award and the Orizzonti award for Best film. Since then, the film has gone on to win 32 international awards, and it was India’s official entry to the Oscars. He has recently been selected for the Rolex Mentor-Protégé Arts Initiative under the mentorship of Alfonso Cuarón.

The Jury will award the following prizes, with no ex-aequo awards permitted: Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Orizzonti Award for Best Director; Special Orizzonti Jury Prize; Orizzonti Award for Best Actor or Actress; Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay; Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film; Venice Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2016.

Debut Film – Lion of the Future

The members of the international Jury of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future, in addition to its president, Italian actor Kim Rossi Stuart, are:

Spanish producer Rosa Bosch, former Deputy Director of the London Film Festival/National Film Theatre. As a producer, she has worked with directors such as Wim Wenders, Guillermo Del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and Gus Van Sant. In 2003 she became co-managing director of HBO Films in London.

American actor and director Brady Corbet won the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and the Orizzonti Award for Best Director. Previously he had been one of America's most interesting young actors, as the star, among others, of Mysterious Skin (2004) by Gregg Araki, presented at the Venice Film Festival.

Spanish actress Pilar López de Ayala, one of the most highly considered and beloved Iberian stars, won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Goya Prize for her performance as Queen Juana de Castilla in Mad Love (2001)by Vicente Aranda. She was the star of The Strange Case of Angelica (2010) by Manoel de Oliveira, presented in the Un certain regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

French film critic Serge Toubiana, one of the most important film scholars of his generation, critic for Cahiers du cinéma from 1974 to 2000 (and its director for many years), director of the Cinémathèque Française from 2003 through January 2016. He is the author of many books and documentaries. With Kent Jones, he co-authored the documentary Hitchcock Truffaut (2015).

The Jury will award, with no ex-aequo awards permitted, the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film to one of the debut feature-length films selected from the various competition sections of the Venice Film Festival (Official Selection and Independent and Parallel Sidebars). It comes with a cash prize of 100,000 USD donated by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi De Laurentiis, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.

#Venezia73 News

In a couple of weeks we will learn the complete 2016 Venice Film Festival lineup, as on July 28 at 11am Rome time the press conference will be held with Alberto Barbera and Paolo Baratta in attendance.

As news have already started to pour let's review what has been released up to today. We already know who is this year's host, the main competition Jury President, the poster, a section that has become official, the opening film, two Presidents of a Jury and a TV show that will premiere its two first episodes.  What follows is all the available info for each of the released news.

The New Poster of the 73rd Venice Film Festival

Not a fan of previous fest posters but this year the poster calls my attention as the visuals talk to me (not happened in the past) and yes, found poster very-minimalist and clean. Very Good.

What follows is a copy and paste from the official site with the rationale behind the creation of the poster designed by Studio Graph.X in Milan, based on Simone Massi's drawings.

The image of a moment of expectation, and an invitation to watch the imminent screening of the films, is the theme of the official poster for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, conceived and drawn for the fifth consecutive year by Simone Massi.

In the foreground, an unidentifiable male figure, who could be the artist Simone Massi himself or any other spectator for that matter, grasps the top of a poster/ curtain and begins to reveal what could be the screen on which, for eleven days, the films of the Venice Film Festival will be shown. The scene evokes the curiosity that kindles the expectations of the audience of film buffs before every screening at a film festival.

The 73rd Venice International Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta, will be held on the Lido from August 31st to September 10th 2016.

The line-up of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival will be announced during the official press conference to be held in Rome, at the Hotel Excelsior, on Thursday 28th July 2016, 11 am.

The visual identity and corporate image of the Venice Film Festival was designed again this year by Studio Graph.X in Milan, based on Simone Massi’s drawings.

Simone Massi, winner of the 2012 David di Donatello for Best Short Film, is the author of the opening sequence which since 2012 has introduced the official screenings of the Venice Film Festival. The sequence lasts 30 seconds, and was made with 300 hand-drawn illustrations that quote Fellini, Anghelopulos, Wenders, Olmi, Tarkovsky, Dovzhenko and Truffaut. Massi conceived the opening sequence with the help of Fabrizio Tassi. The music was composed and performed by Francesca Badalini, while the sound-design is by Stefano Sasso. Julia Gromskaya did the camera work and Lola Capote-Ortiz was responsible for the post-production.

Massi, born in Pergola in 1970, is one of the last pioneers of “stop motion” animation, and has won over 200 awards in major festivals in Italy and abroad. He is also considered one of the most important authors of animated short films at the international level. He is an independent animator, who studied Animation Film at the Scuola d’arte in Urbino. Over the past 19 years he has conceived and made 19 animation films (alone and entirely by hand), which have been screened in 60 countries and were shown at the 69th Venice Film Festival 2012, along with the premiere screening of Animo resistente. Massi does not use computers in his work, he draws everything by hand on paper, using pencils, charcoal, pastels, coloured pencils, graphite and ink. The “scratch” technique he has developed in his most recent works – which allows him to make no more than 6 or 7 drawings in one day, working uninterruptedly from morning until evening - requires up to two and a half years of work to make an 8-minute film.

La La Land by Damien Chazelle Opening Film of the 2016 Biennale

Have to admit that was a pleasant surprise to learn the opening film of 2016 La Mostra as is a major accomplish for a young director to open one of the largest film festivals in the world. Damien Chazelle's follow up to outstanding Whiplash will open the festival and film is In Competition.

Not sure what to think about film as know that leads -Stone and Gosling- make feel-good entertaining movies but hope Chazelle brings something different to actors usual rom-com fare. Still the musical element makes me worry a bit (lol).

The following is what the fest announced on their press release.

La La Land, written and directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend and J. K. Simmons, is the opening film, in Competition, of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

“La La Land is a surprising tribute to the golden age of American musicals, from An American in Paris by Vincent Minnelli to New York, New York by Martin Scorsese,” says Festival director Alberto Barbera. “It is a film that does not merely reinvent the musical genre, it gives it a brand new start. If Whiplash was the revelation of a new filmmaker, La La Land is his definitive, albeit precocious, consecration among the great directors of Hollywood’s new firmament.”

Damien Chazelle says “On behalf of the cast and crew of La La Land, I am both thrilled and honored by the festival’s invitation. It is deeply humbling for us to join the company of their previous opening night films, and we could not be more excited to share our movie with the audience in Venice”.

La La Land will have its world premiere screening on August 31st in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido di Venezia. La La Land is a modern take on the classic Hollywood romance, which is heightened by spectacular song-and-dance numbers, as two dreamers struggle to make ends meet while they pursue their passions in a city known for destroying hopes and breaking hearts. Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail piano gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

La La Land is produced by Lionsgate in partnership with Black Label Media, Gilbert Films, Impostor Pictures, and Marc Platt Productions. The film stars Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, J. K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, Sandra Rosko, and John Legend. La La Land will be distributed in the USA by Lionsgate on December 16th 2016, and in Italy by 01Distribution in collaboration with Leone Film Group.

The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino at the Venice Film Festival

Yes, it is happening.  Television has changed so much that since a few years ago has been irregular part of major film festivals.  Ten years ago not many could think that great directors will be doing TV and much less than TV shows will become like a "long" movie as will be produced with very-high production values and performed by outstanding cinema actors.  Remember Jane Campion's Top of the Lake,  Susanne Bier's Night Manager, visual outstanding Hannibal starring Mads Mikkelsen,  and so many more, especially those from Scandinavian cinema.  Well, now is Sorrentino turn to go into TV miniseries territory with what could be a good story performed by an outstanding international cast and according to what have seen, with high production values.  So, no surprise made it to one of the three top festivals in the world.

The first two episodes of the original series The Young Pope, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring  Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Scott Shepherd, Cécile de France, Javier Cámara, Ludivine Sagnier, Tony Bertorelli and James Cromwell, will be the Out-of-Competition special event at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

Says Alberto Barbera, “It is a great pleasure, as well as a privilege, to present at the Venice Film Festival the world premiere of the first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino’s much-awaited television series. He is a filmmaker who dares to take risks, who – fearlessly and with his customary creative and innovative spirit – tackles the language of television series, the new expressive frontier which many filmmakers, primarily foreign, have already tried their hand at. The result will not fail to kindle sincere emotion and, above all, invigorating and boundless surprise.”

Notes Paolo Sorrentino: “It is an honor for me to return to Venice. I was here with my first film and now I’m returning with my first television series. Since I don’t believe in coincidences, I prefer to think that, today like back then, the Festival is daring to choose. Fifteen years ago, it did so by selecting a young director’s first movie; this year by reaffirming its open-mindedness toward television, recognizing the role that series play in the evolution of visual communication.”

The world premiere of the first two episodes of The Young Pope will be screened on September 3rd in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido di Venezia. The Young Pope is an original production of Sky, HBO and Canal+ and, starting in October, will be broadcast on Sky Atlantic in 5 countries (Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and Austria) and in France on Canal+.

The Young Pope tells the story of Lenny Belardo, alias Pius XIII, the first American Pope. Young and charming, his election seems to be the result of a simple yet effective media strategy on the part of the College of Cardinals. But appearances can be deceptive. Above all, in the place and among the people who have chosen the great mystery of God as the compass guiding their existence. That place is the Vatican and those people are the leaders of the Church. And Pius XIII proves to be the most mysterious and contradictory of them all. Shrewd and naïve, ironical and pedantic, primeval and cutting-edge, doubting and resolute, melancholy and ruthless, Pius XIII tries to cross the endless river of human solitude to find a God he can give to mankind. And to himself.

Director Sam Mendes to head the Venezia 73 International Jury

Early as April 2016 the fest announced Sam Mendes as the president of Venezia 73 main competition and was the first news released about the 2016 edition.

British director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall, Spectre) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, which will assign the Golden Lion for best film, as well as other official awards. The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, on the recommendation of the Festival’s Director, Alberto Barbera.

Right from his 1988 debut as a theatrical director, Sam Mendes made a name for himself as one of the outstanding figures in British theatre, winning numerous awards. He later also established himself as one of the most highly respected film directors of recent years. His debut behind the movie camera was dazzling: in 2000, American Beauty won five Oscars, including best director and best picture. He next directed Road to Perdition, which competed at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. Since then, Sam Mendes has been a regular on London’s stages and on the sets of Hollywood films, all the way up to the extraordinary success of the 23rd James Bond movie, Skyfall, confirmed by the next in the series, Spectre, also directed by Mendes.

Says Festival Director Alberto Barbera, “Sam Mendes’ work is a particularly effective and convincing synthesis of a vocation for distinctive theatre and cinema, combined with research into methods of communication with increasingly large numbers of spectators. His productions, whether destined for stage or screen, are able to reconcile the expectations of the most exacting critics with the tastes of a vast audience which seems to transcend all geographical and cultural boundaries.”

Says Sam Mendes, “I’m very honoured to have been asked by Alberto to lead the International Jury for Venezia 73. I’ve always had a strong personal connection with Venice; as a student I worked for three months at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection way back in 1984, and my happiest film festival memory is launching Road To Perdition at Venice in 2002. I am thoroughly delighted to be coming back to the Lido this year and welcoming a wealth of international filmmaking talent.”

On the final night of the upcoming 73rd Film Festival (September 10, 2016) the International Jury of Venezia 73, chaired by Sam Mendes and composed of nine international celebrities in the spheres of film and culture, will assign the following official prizes to feature-length films in the Competition:
Golden Lion for best film
Grand Jury Prize
Best Director
Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Volpi Cup for Best Actress
Best Screenplay
Special Jury Prize
Marcello Mastroianni Award to an emerging actor or actress

Robert Guédiguian and Kim Rossi Stuart to head two international juries

French director Robert Guédiguian (Marius et Jeannette, La ville est tranquille, Les neiges du Kilimandjaro) and Italian actor and director Kim Rossi Stuart (Le chiavi di casa, Romanzo criminale, Anche libero va bene) have been chosen as the Presidents of two Juries for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, respectively for the Orizzonti section and for the "Luigi De Laurentiis" Venice Award for a Debut Film - Lion of the Future. As announced earlier, the President of the Jury for the Venezia 73 Competition is director Sam Mendes.

Director Robert Guédiguian can be considered the modern minstrel of Marseilles, the city where he was born and lived, and where he set his film La ville est tranquille, presented in Venice in 2000. Guédiguian's filmography is a sort of saga of his city, with stories set in the microcosm of the neighbourhood he was born in, focusing on the lives of common people.

One of the most important actors in Italian cinema, Kim Rossi Stuart has often been featured at the Venice Film Festival with some of his most famous performances, including Le chiavi di casa (2004) by Gianni Amelio and Vallanzasca (2010) by Michele Placido. For Anche libero va bene (2006), his debut as a director, Rossi Stuart won the David di Donatello and the Nastro d'Argento as best new director.

The international Jury of the Orizzonti section, with President Robert Guédiguian, composed of no more than 7 members, will award the following prizes, with no joint awards permitted: Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Orizzonti Award for Best Director; Special Orizzonti Jury Prize; Orizzonti Award for Best Actor or Actress; Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay; Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.

The international Jury of the "Luigi De Laurentiis" Venice Award for a Debut Film - Lion of the Future, with President Kim Rossi Stuart, composed of no more than 5 members including one producer, will award, with no joint prizes permitted, a cash sum of 100,000 dollars donated by Filmauro, to be divided equally between the director and the producer of one of the debut feature-length films presented in the various competition sections of the Venice International Film Festival (Official Selection and Independent and Parallel Sections).

Cinema nel Giardino section at Venezia73

After last year success, the open to the public non-competitive section has become official and Cinema nel Giardino will be part of the festival from now on. The following is the official press release.

The new Regulations of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival confirm and formalize the introduction of the Cinema nel Giardino section, which was such a great success at last year’s edition of the festival.

This non-competitive section will feature a selection of films of various genres and lengths, to be preceded or accompanied by encounters and discussions with directors, stars or personalities in the fields of art and culture. Only films to be screened as world premieres may be submitted for selection.

The Cinema nel Giardino section was conceived in 2015 to fill an urgent need to broaden the activities of the Venice Film Festival with a new space that could open the Festival to everyone: occasional spectators and non-accredited visitors in addition, naturally, to the thousands of film fans that usually crowd the screening rooms. Offering everyone (residents of the Lido and Venice, curious onlookers who have come to see what a festival feels like, young people in search of cinematographic emotions) the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the Venice Film Festival in the evening, for a moment of entertainment that combines an encounter with one or more personalities and the screening of a film. A place where many different activities might take place: discussions and encounters with the world of film and entertainment, screenings and film series. With the idea of bringing new life to the Venice Film Festival as a festival for the people too, and not just for accredited professionals.

The success of this experience which began in 2015 with the arena in the garden of the Casinò, prompted La Biennale to pursue the initiative on a larger scale. The opportunity that will arise as the City of Venice finally seals the “big hole” and turns it into a usable public square, will make it possible to build a modern and technologically advanced structure in this new outdoor space (450 seats) a screening room fit to host world premiere previews of films and their makers, ready to meet the audience before or after the screening.

Sonia Bergamasco set to host the opening and closing nights of the 73rd Festival

Sonia Bergamasco will open the 73rd Venice Film Festival on the evening of Wednesday August 31st, on the stage of the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido) for the opening ceremony, and on September 10th the actress will host the closing ceremony during which the winners of the Lions and the other official awards of the 73rd Venice Film Festival will be announced.

The 73rd Venice Film Festival will be held on the Lido from August 31st to September 10th 2016, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Sonia Bergamasco is one of Italy’s most versatile actresses. She was born in Milan, where she graduated in piano from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, and in acting from the Scuola del Piccolo Teatro. She made her debut in Arlecchino servitore di due padroni with Giorgio Strehler, and was the Blue Fairy in Carmelo Bene’s last version of Pinocchio for theatre and television. In theatre, she has also worked with Theodoros Terzopoulos, Massimo Castri and Glauco Mauri. Since 2001 she has starred in or directed productions in which the experience of music is more deeply entwined with the theatre. Winner of the Premio Duse 2014 for her work as an actress, in 2015 she directed and starred in the production Il ballo (from the short story by Irène Nemirovsky). She made her cinema debut in 2001 in L’amore probabilmente by Giuseppe Bertolucci, presented at the Venice Film Festival.

Winner of the Nastro d’argento 2004 for Best Actress in La meglio gioventù by Marco Tullio Giordana, she also worked with Bernardo Bertolucci in Io e te (2012), with Giuseppe Piccioni in Giulia non esce la sera (2009), with Silvio Soldini in the short film D’estate (1994), with Franco Battiato in Musikanten (2006). She won the Premio Flaiano award as best actress in the film for television De Gasperi, l’uomo della speranza (2005) by Liliana Cavani; also in television, she won great acclaim for the hit series Tutti pazzi per amore (2008-2010) and Una grande famiglia (2012-2015) by Riccardo Milani.

Her most recent accomplishments include her roles in the film Quo vado? with Checco Zalone, directed by Gennaro Nunziante, for which she won the Alida Valli Prize at the Bari Film Festival, and the new episodes of Commissario Montalbano, with Luca Zingaretti.