Venice Classics is the section that since 2012 has presented world premiere screenings at the Venice Film Festival of a selection of the best restorations of film classics carried out over the past year by film archives, cultural institutions and production companies around the world.

The restorations in Venice Classics will include, Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik) by Federico Fellini, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1952, presented today with a view towards the 100th anniversary of the director’ birth in 2020; a “double bill” for Bernardo Bertolucci with La commare secca (The Grim Reaper), the director’s debut film at the 1962 Venice Film Festival, and Strategia del ragno (The Spider’s Stratagem), presented at the 1970 Venice Film Festival; the surprising film debut of Giuliano Montaldo, Tiro al piccione (Pigeon Shoot), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1961; a great film produced by RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana) that deserves to be rediscovered, Maria Zef (1981) by Vittorio Cottafavi; the masterpiece by Manoel de Oliveira, Francisca (1981); Out of the Blue (1980) by Dennis Hopper; New York, New York (1977) by Martin Scorsese, in a new 35mm copy, courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) on the occasion of United Artists centennial anniversary. The new copy, printed especially for the Venice Film Festival, is presented by the famous producer Irvin Winkler, who will also hold a masterclass after the end of the screening.

Director and screenwriter Costanza Quatriglio (Sembra mio figlio, Terramatta, Con il fiato sospeso) will chair the Jury of Film Students which – for the eighth year in a row – will award the VENICE CLASSICS prizes for the respective competitions for BEST RESTORED FILM and for the BEST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT CINEMA.

Costanza Quatriglio (Palermo, 1973) is a director, screenwriter and the Artistic Director of the Sicilian branch of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia dedicated to documentary film. She made her debut with the award-winning film L’isola, presented at the 56th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. That same year the making of Racconti per L’isola was invited to the Venice International Film Festival in the Nuovi Territori section. She has won two Nastro d’Argento awards for best documentary: for Terramatta in 2013 and Triangle in 2015. Among the documentaries she has presented at the most important international film festivals, winning many acknowledgments, are: Écosaimale? (2000), Il bambino Gioacchino (2000), La borsa di Hélène (2000), L’insonnia di Devi (2001), Raìz (2004), Il mondo addosso (2006), Il mio cuore umano (2009), Terramatta (2012), Con il fiato sospeso 2013), Triangle (2014), 87 ore (2015). In 2018, she presented her film Sembra mio figlio at the Locarno Film Festival.

The 76th Venice International Film Festival will be held on the Lido from August 28th to September 7th 2019.

The following is the complete line-up of the restorations in the section Venice Classics, selected for the 76th Venice Film Festival:

VENICE CLASSICS

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN
by JACK ARNOLD (USA, 1957, 81’, B/W)
restored by: Universal Pictures

LA COMMARE SECCA (THE GRIM REAPER)
by BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI (Italy, 1962, 92’, B/W)
restored by: CSC-Cineteca Nazionale in collaboration with RTI-Mediaset

STRATEGIA DEL RAGNO (THE SPIDER’S STRATAGEM)
by BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI (Italy, 1970, 110’, Colour)
restored by: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Massimo Sordella in collaboration with Compass Film

ENSAYO DE UN CRIMEN (THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ)
by LUIS BUÑUEL (Mexico, 1955, 92’, B/W)
restored by: Cineteca Nacional México in collaboration with Sindicato de Trajadores de la Producción Cinematográfica

LE PASSAGE DU RHIN (THE CROSSING OF THE RHINE)
by ANDRÉ CAYATTE (France, Germany, Italy, 1960, 125’, B/W)
restored by: Gaumont

MARIA ZEF
by VITTORIO COTTAFAVI (Italy, 1981, 122’, Colour)
restored by: Rai Teche in collaboration with Cineteca del Friuli, Fuori Orario (Rai3) and Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino

CRASH
by DAVID CRONENBERG (Canada, 1996, 100’, Colour)
restored by: Recorded Picture Company and Turbine Media Group (with the supervision of David Cronenberg and DOP Peter Suschitzky)

FRANCISCA
by MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA (Portugal, 1981, 167’, Colour)
restored by: Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema

KHANEH SIAH AST (THE HOUSE IS BLACK)
by FOROUGH FARROKHZAD (Iran, 1962, 21’, B/W)
restored by: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Ecran Noir productions, in collaboration with Ebrahim Golestan. With the support of Genoma Films and Mahrokh Eshaghian

LO SCEICCO BIANCO (THE WHITE SHEIK)
by FEDERICO FELLINI (Italy, 1952, 86’, B/W)
restored by: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in the context of “Fellini 100” project, in collaboration with RTI-Mediaset and Infinity

SODRÁSBAN (CURRENT)
by ISTVÁN GAÁL (Hungary, 1963, 85’, B/W)
restored by: Hungarian National Film Fund – Film Archive

TAPPE-HAYE MARLIK (THE HILLS OF MARLIK)
by EBRAHIM GOLESTAN (Iran, 1964, 15’, Colour)
restored by: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Ecran Noir productions, in collaboration with Ebrahim Golestan and the National Film Archive of Iran. With the support of Mahrokh Eshaghian and Genoma Films

LA MUERTE DE UN BURÒCRATA (DEATH OF A BUREAUCRAT)
by TOMÁS GUTIÉRREZ ALEA (Cuba, 1966, 85’, B/W)
restored by: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Archive) and Cinemateca de Cuba

OUT OF THE BLUE
by DENNIS HOPPER (Canada, USA, 1980, 94’, Colour)
restored by: Discovery Productions (John Alan Simon and Elizabeth Karr)

EXTASE (ECSTASY)
by GUSTAV MACHATÝ (Czechoslovakia, 1932, 87’, B/W)
restored by: Národní filmový archiv (National Film Archive in Prague), thanks to the support of Milada Kučerová and Eduard Kučera and the collaboration of the Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary

MAURI
by MERATA MITA (New Zealand, 1988, 100’, Colour)
restored by: New Zealand Film Commission

TIRO AL PICCIONE (PIGEON SHOOT)
by GIULIANO MONTALDO (Italy, 1961, 115’, B/W)
restored by: CSC-Cineteca Nazionale in collaboration with Surf Film

NEW YORK, NEW YORK
by MARTIN SCORSESE (USA, 1977, 163’, Colour)
New 35mm print courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), on the occasion of United Artists centennial anniversary

KALINA KRASNAYA (THE RED SNOWBALL TREE)
by VASILIY SHUKSHIN (URSS, 1973, 107’, Colour)
restored by: Mosfilm Cinema Concern (Karen Shakhnazarov producer of the restoration)

WAY OF A GAUCHO
by JACQUES TOURNEUR (USA, 1952, 91’, Colour)
restored by: Twentieth Century Fox and The Film Foundation