19th Queer Lion Award Lineup

As we all know, the lineup of titles competing for the 2025 Queer Lion Award is compiled with the collaboration of Alberto Barbera, Angela Savoldi, and Paolo Bertolin for all the sections of the official selection, and in particular Venezia 82 Competition, Out of Competition, and Orizzonti); Mariachiara Manci from Venice Immersive; Valentina Bellomo from Biennale College Cinema; Federico Gironi for Venice Classics; Gaia Furrer and Francesco Bonerba from Giornate degli Autori; and, Beatrice Fiorentino from Venice International Film Critics’ Week.

They, along with organizers, chose among the films with LGBT stories and characters dealing with civil rights issues related to different sexual orientations, equal opportunities, and fight against homotransphobia.

As always let's start taking a look at the official graphic image of the award and the reasons why this year the image is as seen here.

Official Image

The 2025 official image by Daniel De Faveri is all about “Lumen Queer” a concept which wraps ideas like the following:

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22nd Giornate delgi Autori Lineup

Yesterday organizers announced the activities that will take place during the current edition of the Giornate degli Autori. The official selection this year has 10 titles in competition, 1 out of competition, 5 special events and 2 short films; and the Venetian Nights section has 9 titles with Italian major producers.

To refresh our memory, the Giornate degli Autori was born in 2004, as an independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, modeled on the prestigious ‘Directors’ Fortnight’ of the Cannes Festival and promoted by the associations of Italian film directors and authors (ANAC and 100autori). The aim of the event is to draw attention to high quality cinema, without any kind of restriction, with special care for innovation, research, originality and independence.

As organizers say: "All the films presented will be world premieres and together they form a window on the world that will transport audiences to 20 different Countries and cultures that can boast a remarkable variety, to our liking, of styles and film languages; a strong showing for narrative documentaries, and a special attention to such themes as memory, personal history, and cultural alienation – a reflex reaction for artists, in these dramatic times we live in."

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40th Venice International Film Critics' Week Lineup

This morning had a huge surprise when found the complete line up and all press materials for the 2025 edition of la Settimana, so will do post while waiting for the #Venice82 press conference.

In 2025, the Settimana Internazionale della Critica celebrates a double anniversary. Forty years of this wonderful institution, first conceived in 1984 by the Director of the Venice International Film Festival Gian Luigi Rondi and enthusiastically brought to life by the President of the Sindacato Nazionale dei Critici Cinematografici Italiani (SNCCI) Lino Miccichè and film critic Giorgio Tinazzi, who became its first General Delegate.

In 2025, we also celebrate ten years of SIC@SIC, the section born from the brilliant intuition of Carla Cattani (Cinecittà) and immediately embraced by film critics, intended to be an incubator for Italian short feature filmmakers.

The films that make up the current edition 9+9 titles, selected amdist the nearly 700 feature films that were submitted from all over the world, and the nearly 300 Italian shorts applications is the culminating work of a new selection committee appointed by the Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematrofici Italiani (SNCCI, Matteo Berardini, Marianna Cappi, Francesco Grieco, and Marco Romagna. They worked along with Beatrice Florentino, Artistic Director, to design a selection of films that cross borders of identity, geographical frontiers, existencial boundaries and undoubtedly draw and amplify the tensions of our times.

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82nd Venice International Film Festival Lineup

Today, July 22. A very long press conference with a cascade of films in the Biennale Cinema selection, as a matter of fact it was after an hour and 15 minutes that the competition was finally announced. The selection has not many "surprises" as most films were expected, especially in the main competition.

The best news are the inclusion of Mother by Teona Strugar Mitevska with Noomi Rapace playing Mother Teresa, not in #Venezia82 competition but in #Orizzonti2025 competition. Oh! Ozon's L'Etranger is in Competition!!! that's the most pleasant surprise as just a few days back discovered the film and even posted about it. Great! 

Kim Novack and Werner Herzog are being honored with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, a decision made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale upon recommendation of the Artistic Director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera.

The actress and author Emanuela Fanelli will host the opening and closing nights of the Biennale Cinema.

On August 26th two Pre-Opening films, 1929 Queen Kelly by Erich von Stroheim with music performed by the Syntax Ensemble, film will be shown as world premiere in a new version restored incorporating newly discovered materiasls; and Origin, the Venetian Lagoon by Yann Arthus Bertrand, the famous French photographer, director and environmentalists.

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#Venezia82 Rumors

Update July 17 - Toronto Film Festival announced 11 films in the official selection and because some of them are World Premiere it's sure thing that they will not be in #Venezia82. These are the films: The Chorla by Nicholas Hytner, Roofman by Derek Cianfrance, Franz by Agniezka Holland, The Lost Bus by Paul Greengrass, Rental Family by Hikari, Steal Away by Clement Virgo, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery by Rian Johnson.

The rest of the 11 films are North American premiere because they were in Cannes and/other film festivals. But there is one film, Canadian Premiere, that probably will be in Venice and/or Telluride: Hamnet by Chloé Zhao.

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June 2, 2025

Two weeks before the press conference where Alberto Barbera and Pietranelo Buttafuoco announce the 2025 Biennale Cinema lineup, rumors are abound all over the cinema universe. Here are some of those rumors.

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98th Academy Awards International Feature Film Submissions

Update August 11: Finally the second country to announce is the Czech Republic and can say their selection is surprising; but, definitively the new selection process controversy generated voters discontent. Sigh.
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Update July 16: It is surprising to find two countries publishing their call to submit films to Oscars 2026, first was Papua New Guinea and second, Madagascar. It was surprising as both are not countries with known cinema so had to make sure that announcements were legit. The first check was to find if both film sites existed and yes, they do; then, if in their sites there was an announcement and yes, there is. Therefore decided to include them and with utmost interest will be looking forward to find if they submit a film for AMPAS consideration.

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Update July 15: The first country to announce their submission is Turkey!!!

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64th Semaine de la Critique Award Winners

Cannes parallel section just came to an end with the awards announced at the closing ceremony yesterday, May 21st, 2025 by jury president Rodrigo Sorogoyen and jury members Jihane Bougrine, Josée Deshaies, Yulina Evina Bhara and Daniel Kaluuya.

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78th Festival de Cannes Award Winners

It's Over! Dislike the Hollywood-American feeling that the festival had this year BUT extremely like that no major award went to those distracting participants. Sorry but I do not enjoy much Pahani movies and well, it's a fact that now he becomes one of only four directors that have won the Golden Bear, the Golden Lion and the Golden Palm; the others are Michelangelo Antonioni, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Robert Altman.

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May 21,2025
Post begins today as there are a few winners already announced.

The closing ceremony is next Saturday, May 24 and post will be In Progess until after that date.

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10th L’Œil d’or Selection and Winners

L’Œil d’or (Golden Eye) is the documentary award created in 2015 by the Société civile des auteurs multimédia (LaScam), in collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival with the support of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), celebrates its 10th anniversary.

This year there are fourteen (14) documentaries in competition for the award and for the first time the documentaries in the ACID selection are included along the ones in the Official Selection, Semaine de la Critique and Quinzaine des Cinéastes.

The award will be presented on Friday, May 23 at the Salon des ambassadeurs du Palais des festival.

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15th Queer Palm Selection and Winners

May 15 Update: post becomes final with the Short Films selection with four short films only.

---///--- May 9 Update: Film list was publish today and now list below has become official for feature films. As usual imagine list could include more (or Less) films as films become available.  Also believe there could be a list of short films and perhaps also documentaries that probably will be released soon.

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May 4,2025
Not many news about the Queer Palm selection and only when more film info is revealed by the Cannes film festival official organizers is when the group will publish the selection. Meanwhile here are some news.

The 2025 edition of the Cannes LGBT+ award is the 15th and will not deny that still remember when the award was announced for the first time 15 years ago. It wasn't easy for award organizers to get to where they are now, but perseverance and tolerance has made this award to not only survive but thrive.

The Poster

2025 poster is crafted by acclaimed French artist and photographer Marie Rouge known for her evocative imagery that blends cinematic aesthetics with emotional depth. The photo story is as follows.

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17th La Fabrique Cinéma

La Fabrique Cinéma is a program created by the Institut français in partnership with France Médias Monde and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), to promote the emergence of young filmmakers from developing and emerging countries on the international market.

Conceived in close collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival and its Marché du Film, La Fabrique Cinéma de l'Institut français selects each year ten 1st or 2nd feature film projects to present and introduce them in a privileged way to the industry and its decision-makers during the Cannes Film Festival.

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2025 L'ACID Selection

Yesterday, April 15, organizers announced the selection for ACID, Cannes parallel section run by France's Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l'ACID); ACID is an association of film directors which, since 1992, has been promoting the cinema distribution of independent films and encouraging debates between authors and audiences. The strength of the solidarity chain it has built lies on its founding principle: the support given by filmmakers to other filmmakers, French or international.

The selection committee with 14 members screened hundreds of films and programmed 9 of them. Amongst them, 5 first and second feature films, 6 fictions and 3 documentaries, and as every year, a particular attention given to films without distributors.

Excerpt from their presentation: "From the French Alps to the Finnish coast, in the depths of New York or the Portuguese nights, encounters, and the sharing of desires and stories allow forlorn souls to find meaning and light fires again. Lazing under the sun of Italy or uncertainly wandering the streets of Paris, kids from here and elsewhere ceaselessly make tales, fabricate the past in order to reinvent the present. A woman's face asserts itself on a telephone screen, through dialogue created by another woman on the other side of the world, opening a precarious window on the war's atrocities in Gaza. From the Colombian desert to the Boulogne cemetery, sons looking for traces are learning to live with the mothers' absences and the fathers' fragile presences. This is what the films of this programme offer us, thanks to the intensity of its daily life heroes. They remind us that, in the face of real life's brutality, we can still enact sparks."

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57th Quinzaine des Cinéastes Selection

April 25 Update: One more film for the Selection, Yes by Nadav Lapid.

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Today, Tuesday April 15, 2025 Julien Relj, Artistic Director, announced the selection for the 2025 edition of the Director's Fortnight and I expected more #Cannes2025 Official Selection omissions but only two are in this parallel section.

Before going into the list and as has been long since my last Quinzaine list will start reminding us what this Cannes festival parallel section is all about.

La Quinzaine

Created in 1969 by the Société des Réalisatrices et Réalisateurs de Films (SRF), the Directors’ Fortnight is an independent sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival, which is dedicated to showcasing the most singular forms of contemporary cinema. The name of the section was changed in 2023 from Quinzaine des Réalisateurs to Quinzaine des Cinéastes, the international version in English did not change.

As opposed to the official selection, the Fortnight is non-competitive; it brings together short, medium- and feature-length films, fiction and non-fiction, live action and animation. Only one principle guides our selection: a filmmaker’s attendance to mise en scene, and their unique mode of artistic expression.

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64th Semaine de la Critique Selection

Update: Short Films Selection has been included in list.

A few minutes ago organizers announced via video the feature film selection for the current edition of #Cannes2025 Critics' Week, the short film selection will be announced on April 17.

The Poster

The poster of the 64th Semaine de la Critique shows one of the heroines of Queens of Drama raising their hand to the heavens, challenging us and beckoning us to ecstasy. A vibrant tribute to all kinds of performance, Alexis Langlois’ film is a love letter to film, music, and celebration.

It reminds us that this young generation of filmmakers breathes new life into the artform, absorbing the codes and casting their very own glow; asserting the freedom to take possession and enhance all images to reinvent them.

The Jury

La Semaine de la Critique, the parallel selection of the Festival de Cannes dedicated to first and second films, is proud to announce that the President of the 64th edition is Rodrigo Sorogoyen and will be supported by Jihana Bougrine, Jesee Deshales, Yulia Evina Bhara and Daniel Kaluuya.

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78th Cannes Film Festival Lineup

May 8 Update: The last update with four films to make the Official Selection complete, so they say again (!).

After unbelievable amount of buzz during the last 10 days, Bi Gan's Resurrection is in competion and now there are 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or. The other three movies are by Martin Bourboulon, Eugene Jarecki and the last one by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. All four movies have been marked with (*) for easy identification.

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April 24 Update: The Selection is complete with the addition of 2 films in Competition, 4 films in Un Certain Regard (YES! Kristen Stewart film is in), 3 films in Cannes Premiere (3 films I was hoping will make it), 2 films in Midnight Screenings, and 4 Special Screenings. Also, a film by Pierre Richard as part of his Tribute. New films are marked with (*) until before the post becomes final or new additions are made.

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