Venice International Film Festival

David Cronenberg will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for directors at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, taking place August 29 to September 8, 2018. Accepting the award, David Cronenberg declared: “I’ve always loved the Golden Lion of Venice. A lion that flies on golden wings––that’s the essence of art, isn’t it? The essence of cinema. It will be almost unbearably thrilling to receive a Golden Lion of my own.” With regard to this prize, Festival Director, Alberto Barbera declared: “Although Cronenberg was originally relegated to the margins of the horror genre, right from his first, scandalously subversive movies, the director has shown that he wants to take his audiences well beyond the cinema of exploitation, as he constructs an original and highly personal structure, movie after movie. Revolving around the inseparable relationship of body, sex, and death, his universe is populated by grotesque deformities and terrifying couplings, a horror which reflects the fear of mutations inflicted on bodies by science and technology, of disease and physical decay, of the unresolved conflict between spirit and flesh. Violence, sexual transgression, confusion between what is real and what is virtual, the image’s deforming role in contemporary society: these are a few of the recurring themes which have helped make him one of the most daring and stimulating filmmakers ever, a tireless innovator of forms and languages.” Director David Cronenberg’s reputation as an authentic auteur has been firmly established by his uniquely personal body of work which includes: Shivers, Rabid, Fast Company, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ, The Dead Zone, M. Butterfly, Spider, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis and Maps to the Stars. In 1991, Cronenberg was nominated for the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival for Naked Lunch and won this award in 1999 for eXistenZ. Cronenberg’s films Crash, Spider, A History of Violence and Cosmopolis have all been in competition for the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1996, Crash received a Special Jury Prize from the Festival. Most recently, in 2011, A Dangerous Method was nominated for a Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Frequently lauded as one of the world’s greatest and most influential directors, Cronenberg’s films have earned him critical praise and recognition internationally. In 1999, he presided over the Cannes Film Festival jury and in 2006, was awarded the Festival’s lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d’Or. Collectively, his films have been nominated for seven Golden Globes; received BAFTA and France’s César Award nominations for A History of Violence and Eastern Promises; four Academy Award nominations; prizes from the Toronto International Film Festival, Directors Guild of Canada and Canada’s Genie Awards. Cronenberg’s short film, At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World, in which he also stars, was created for the Chacun son cinema collection of films commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Cannes International Film Festival. Other special commissions include Camera (2000), created for the 25th anniversary of the Toronto International Film (TIFF) and The Nest (2013) as part of TIFF’s David Cronenberg Evolution exhibition and retrospective. In 2006, Cronenberg worked with the Art Gallery of Ontario as a guest curator for the exhibition, Andy Warhol/Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-1964. David created an innovative soundtrack audio guide with additional commentary by several of Warhol’s contemporaries. Further challenging himself outside the realm of film, David brought the opera of the The Fly to the stage for the Théâtre du Châtelet and LA Opera in 2008. Turning his hand to fiction in 2014, David debuted his first novel, Consumed. The inventive and disturbing work was mounted as a stage play by Theatre Bremen in 2015 and is currently being developed for television. Recognition of Cronenberg’s contribution to art and culture has included an appointment as an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2003, a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2014, investiture in France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 1990 and the Légion d’Honneur in 2009. Cronenberg was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in 2011.

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Director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 75th Venice International Film Festival taking place August 29 to September 8, 2018, which will assign the Golden Lion for Best Film as well as other official awards. Guillermo del Toro commented: “To serve as president in Venice is a immense honor and responsibility that I accept with respect and gratitude. Venice is a window to world cinema and the opportunity to celebrate its power and cultural relevance.” Festival Director Alberto Barbera said: “Guillermo Del Toro personifies generosity, a love for movies past or future, and a passion for the kind of cinema that can spark emotions, affect people and, at the same time, make them reflect. By virtue of his lively imagination, uncommon sensitivity and his trust in the power of images, he has brought to life a fantastic universe in which love and fear can coexist, and to treasure diversity is a fundamental value. We are pleased and honored that he has agreed to preside over the Jury of the 75th Venice Film Festival, after having illuminated the previous edition with the dazzling beauty of The Shape of Water. He will be a genial, inquisitive and enthusiastic President.” Guillermo del Toro participated in the Competition of the recent 74th Venice International Film Festival 2017 with The Shape of Water, which won the Golden Lion for Best Film, awarded by the Jury chaired by Annette Bening. Del Toro participated in the Venice Film Festival for the first time in 1997 with the film Mimic, in the Mezzanotte section. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury for the Luigi de Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.

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[caption id="attachment_23250" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Rebecca Hall in Christine[/caption] The Venice International Film Festival has selected the members of the four international Juries (Venezia 74, Orizzonti, “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for Best Debut Film, Venice Virtual Reality) for the upcoming 74th edition taking place August 30 to September 9, 2017. The Presidents of the four Juries are Annette Bening, Gianni Amelio, John Landis and Benoît Jacquot

Venezia 74

In addition to the president, actress Annette Bening, the members are: The Hungarian director and screenwriter Ildikó Enyedi; she won the Golden Camera for Best Debut Film at Cannes for MyTwentieth Century; the movie was included on the list of the 12 best Hungarian films of all time. She participated In Competition in Venice in 1994 with Magic Hunter and in Locarno in 1999 with Simon the Magician. Her most recent film, On Body and Soul, won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2017. The director, producer and screenwriter Michel Franco. Born and raised in Mexico he has made five feature films, four of which were presented in Cannes. Después de Lucía and Las hijas de Abril won Best Film and the Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard, respectively. Chronic, presented In Competition, won Best Screenplay. He produced Desde allá by Lorenzo Vigas, which won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2015. The British actress Rebecca Hall; she spends her time between Great Britain and the United States, where she has worked with directors such as Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Woody Allen, thanks to whom she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She has also appeared in The Town, A Promise and Iron Man 3. She received critical acclaim and major international awards for her performance in Christine. The actress Anna Mouglalis is an iconic figure of French art house cinema. At a very young age, she appeared in La captive (2000) by Chantal Akerman. She became famous in Italy thanks to her role in Romanzo criminale (2005) by Michele Placido. She spends her time between Italy and France, making art house films with directors such as Arnaud Desplechin, Mario Martone and Philippe Garrel, and she is in the cast of Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), a protagonist at the 2011 César awards. The Anglo-Australian film critic David Stratton; he directed the Sydney Film Festival for almost twenty years and has been a member of the jury at major film festivals all over the world, including Venice, Cannes and Berlin. Stratton collaborated with Variety for twenty years and he has produced and hosted important television programs about cinema. The actress Jasmine Trinca; she is one of the most important Italian actresses of her generation. She has appeared in films by important directors such as Nanni Moretti, Marco Tullio Giordana, Michele Placido and Taviani brothers. In 2009, she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award in Venice for The Big Dream and in 2017 she was awarded Best Actress in Un Certain Regard at Cannes for Fortunata. She has also won two Silver Ribbons. The English director and screenwriter Edgar Wright; he is the director of the iconic “Three Flavours Cornetto” Trilogy, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, started with Shaun of the Dead (2004), which revitalized genre parodies. In 2010, he directed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, an original experiment overlapping film and comics. At the moment, his film Baby Driver is receiving acclaim in the American theaters and it will be released in Italy on September 7th. The director, producer and screenwriter Yonfan; world traveler, active across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, he has written, directed and produced all thirteen of his own movies, including Breaking the Willow (2003) and Prince of Tears (2009), both of which were presented in Venice, the latter film in Competition; he also participated in the project Venezia 70 – Future Reloaded. He has worked with the top Hong Kong stars, including Maggie Cheung, Chow Yung-fat and Daniel Wu, who became well-known for his role in Bishonen. The Jury for the Venezia 74 Competition will award the following official prizes: 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; Award for Best Screenplay; the Special Jury Prize and “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress.

Orizzonti

The members of the International Jury of the Orizzonti section are: The Italian director Gianni Amelio (President of the Jury). He debuted in feature films with Colpire al cuore (1982), which participated In Competition in Venice, where he won the Golden Lion in 1998 with Così ridevano; he returned to Venice three more times. Other films of his include The Stolen Children (Grand Prize of the Jury in Cannes in 1992), Lamerica and The Keys to the House. This year, La tenerezza received the Silver Ribbon for Best Film. Rakhshan Banietemad is one of Iran’s most important filmmakers, the director of numerous documentaries and fiction films such as Under the Skin of the City and Our Times, fundamental works of Iranian cinema. In 1995, The Blue Veiled won the Bronze Leopard in Locarno, while Taleswon Best Screenplay at Venice 71. The American director Ami Canaan Mann. She has directed three feature films. She debuted in 2001 with Morning; in 2011 she presented Texas Killing Fields In Competition in Venice, where she returned three years later with Jackie & Ryan, selected for the Orizzonti section. She has directed episodes for several TV series such as Robbery Homicide Division and, most recently, Shots Fired and Sneaky Pete. The Irish-Scottish director, screenwriter and curator Mark Cousins. He has made many documentaries and is particularly famous for his monumental The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a 930-minute journey through the history of cinema. He has also made short films and experimental works, and is a university professor and essayist. He directed his first fiction film, Stockholm, My Love, in 2016. The Argentine screenwriter, architect and artistic curator Andrés Duprat. He wrote the screenplays of El artista (2008), El hombre de al lado (2010), Querida voy a comprar cigarrillos y vuelvo (2011) and El ciudadano ilustre (2016), all of which were directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. El ciudadano ilustre allowed Oscar Martínez to winthe Coppa Volpi in Venice. Duprat is the curator of the Pavilion of Argentina at the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia. The Belgian director and screenwriter Fien Troch. She debuted in feature films in 2005 with Someone Else’s Happiness, presented in Toronto, where she returned with her next film, Unspoken. Her most recent movie, Home, won Best Director in the Orizzonti section in Venice in 2016. Rebecca Zlotowski is a French screenwriter and the director of three feature films. Her first movie, Belle épine, was presented in 2010 in Cannes, where she returned in 2013 with Grand Central in Un Certain Regard. Planetarium, her 2016 film starring Natalie Portman, was presented Out of Competition in Venice. The Jury of the Orizzonti section will award the following prizes, with no ex-aequo (tie) permitted: Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Orizzonti Award for Best Director; Special Orizzonti Jury Prize; Orizzonti Award for Best Actor; Orizzonti Award for Best Actress; Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay; Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.

“Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a 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 are: The French director and screenwriter Benoît Jacquot (President of the Jury). He has participated several times In Competition at the Venice Film Festival, with Le septième ciel in 1997; Pas de scandale in 1999; L’intouchable in 2006, for which the film’s protagonist Isild Le Besco received the Marcello Mastroianni Award; and 3 coeurs in 2014. The British author, professor, interviewer and film programmer Geoff Andrew. He has been the editor and lead writer of Time Out and a regular contributor to Sight & Sound for many years. Andrew was the head programmer at the National Film Theatre (now BFI Southbank) and a programming consultant for the London Film Festival. Albert Lee is one of the most experienced and versatile figures in Hong Kong’s film industry. He has worked as producer with directors such as Herman Yau, Dante Lam, Benny Chan and Jeff Lau. He is well-known for his long-standing collaboration with the Chinese director Jiang Wen, which began in 2007 with The Sun Also Rises, presented In Competition in Venice. The Italian actress Greta Scarano. She starred in the film Senza nessuna pietà by Michele Alhaique, presented in Venice in 2014 in the Orizzonti section. She received the Silver Ribbon and the Golden Ciak as the discovery of the year for her performance in Suburra by Stefano Sollima. Greta Scarano plays Elisa in Sky’s cult TV series In Treatment. Yorgos Zois is a Greek director who has worked as an assistant to Theo Angelopoulos. His first short, Casus Belli, was presented in 2010 in Venice, where he returned two years later with Out of Frame, which was nominated at the 2012 European Film Award and also received several other international awards. His first feature film, Interruption, was presented in the Orizzonti section in 2015. The Jury will award, with no ex-aequo awards (tie) 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). The Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film comes with a cash prize of 100,000 USD donated by Filmauro, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.

Venice Virtual Reality

The members of the International Jury of the Venice Virtual Reality section are: The director John Landis (President of the Jury), a key figure in American cinema for the past forty years.  Landis has influenced generations of filmmakers with his movies, which include Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places. Into the Night, one of his most famous movies, will be screened in its restored version in Venice this year. In 2008 Landis was a jury member for the Competition at the 65th Venice Film Festival. The French screenwriter and director Céline Sciamma. Naissance des pieuvres, her first film, was presented in Cannes in 2007, as was Bande de filles seven years later. She became famous with her second feature film, Tomboy, presented in Berlin and the winner of many awards. Her screenplays include Ma vie de courgette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The actor and director Ricky Tognazzi. He won a Silver Bear for Best Director with Ultrà, tying with The Silence of the Lambs, and a David di Donatello in the same category, a feat he repeated two years later with La scorta, which participated In Competition in Cannes. In 2011, he presented Tutta colpa della musica in Venice. He has performed in movies such as Una storia semplice and Caruso Pascoski di padre polacco. The Jury of Venice Virtual Reality will award, with no ex-aequo awards (tie) permitted, the following prizes: Best VR Film, Grand VR Jury Prize, Best VR Creativity Award.

Venezia Classici

Italian director Giuseppe Piccioni (Not of This World, Light of My Eyes, These Days) will chair the Jury of Cinema History Students which will award the Venezia Classici Award for the Best Restored Film and the Best Documentary On Cinema.

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[caption id="attachment_23210" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Close Encounters of the Third Kind[/caption] Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind are among the numerous restored masterpieces in the Venezia Classici section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Italian director Giuseppe Piccioni (Not of This World, Light of My Eyes, These Days) will chair the Jury of Cinema History Students which – for the fifth time – will award the Venezia Classici Award for the Best Restored Film and the Best Documentary on Cinema. The film in the Venezia Classici section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival include:1900 by Bernardo Bertolucci (1976); Red Desert by Michelangelo Antonioni (1964), awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival; A Story from Chikamatsu (1954) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, by Kenji Mizoguchi; Wanderers of the Desert by Nacer Khemir (1984); The Revolt of Mamie Stover by Raoul Walsh (1956); The Third Lover by Claude Chabrol (1962); Black Peter by Miloš Forman (1963); Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg (1977); Batch ’81 by Mike De Leon (1982), and Into the Night by John Landis (1985). The 74th Venice International Film Festival will be held at the Lido from August 30 to September 9, 2017. The list of the films selected for the Venezia Classici section of the 74th Festival: Les baliseurs du désert / El-haimoune (Wanderers of the Desert) by Nacer Khemir (Tunisie, France, 1984, 95’, COL.) Restoration: Cinémathèque royale de Belgique Batch ‘81 by Mike De Leon (Philippines, 1982, 108’, COL.) Restoration: Asian Film Archive Cerný Petr (Black Peter)by Miloš Forman (Czechoslovakia, 1963, 89’, B/W) Restoration: Národní filmový archiv Chikamatsu monogatari (A Story from Chikamatsu) by Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan, 1954, 102’, B/W) Restoration: Kadokawa Corporation, The Film Foundation with the cooperation of The Japan Foundation Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg (USA, 1977, 137’, COL.) Restoration: Sony Pictures Entertainment Daïnah la métisse by Jean Grémillon (France, 1932, 48’, B/W) followed by Zéro de conduite – rushes by Jean Vigo (France, 1933, 20’, B/W) Restoration: Gaumont with the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée Il deserto rosso (Red Desert) by Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy, 1964, 120’, COL.) Restoration: CSC-Cineteca Nazionale with the cooperation of RTI-Mediaset Deux ou trois choses que je sais d’elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her) by Jean-Luc Godard (France, 1967, 87’, COL.) Restoration: Argos Films with the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée La donna scimmia (The Ape Woman) by Marco Ferreri (Italy, France, 1964, 93’, B/W) Restoration: Cineteca di Bologna and TF1 Studio with the cooperation of Surf Film Idi i smotri (Come and See) by Elem Klimov (USSR, 1985, 143’, COL.) Restoration: Mosfilm (producer of the restoration, Karen Shakhnazarov) Into the Night by John Landis (USA, 1985, 115’, COL.) Restoration: Universal Pictures Non c’è pace tra gli ulivi (Under the Olive Tree) by Giuseppe De Santis (Italy, 1950, 107’, B/W) Restoration: CSC-Cineteca Nazionale with the cooperation of CristaldiFilm by Zeudi Araya and Massimo Cristaldi Novecento (1900) by Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy, 1976, 317’, COL.) Restoration: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Istituto Luce – Cinecittà and Cineteca di Bologna, with the cooperation of Alberto Grimaldi and the support of Massimo Sordella Ochazuke no Aji (Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice) by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1952, 115’, B/W) Restoration: Shochiku Co., Ltd. L’oeil du malin(The Third Lover) by Claude Chabrol (France, 1962, 91’, B/W) Restoration: Studiocanal with the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée The Old Dark House by James Whale (USA, 1933, 72’, B/W) Restoration: Cohen Film Collection / Cohen Media Group The Revolt of Mamie Stover by Raoul Walsh (USA, 1956, 93’, COL.) Restoration: 20th Century Fox Sansho dayu (Sansho the Bailiff) by Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan, 1954, 126’, B/W) Restoration: Kadokawa Corporation, The Film Foundation with the cooperation of The Japan Foundation The Venezia Classici section will also feature the presentation of a selection of documentaries about cinema and its filmmakers. The complete list of the section will be announced during the press conference presenting the program of the Venice Film Festival, on Thursday, July 27th at 11 am in Rome (Cinema Moderno).

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