Sunday, July 24, 2016

#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.

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