From August 29 to September 8, 2012, the 69th Venice International Film Festival takes place. It was founded at the initiative of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini back in 1932. Since then, every year, with the exception of the period of the Second World War and the end of the 60s, the festival is held on the island of Lido.
The main program of the festival involves full-length films that have not been previously shown to viewers and have not participated in other contests. The director of the festival and a commission of five people select films, sometimes foreign consultants participate in the selection. Usually no more than 20 films are screened; in 2012, 18 films were presented at the 69th festival.
The jury of the festival includes figures of culture and art, significant people in world cinema, from 7 to 9 people in total. The best film receives the Golden Lion main award, the best director receives the Silver Lion, the Volpi Cup is awarded to actors who played the best male and female roles, the best young actor or actress receives the Marcello Mastroianni Prize, and for the best script, camera work, etc. awarded the Osella prize.
The official program of the 69th Venice International Film Festival was announced on July 26, 2012. For the competitive screening, films of such masters of world cinema as Takeshi Kitano ("Lawlessness 2" - the continuation of the crime drama), Brian De Palma (the erotic thriller "Passion"), Terrence Malik ("Admiration" - a melodrama with Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko in the lead roles), Kim Ki Duca ("Pieta" - a film about revenge and forgiveness), as well as the work of young aspiring directors.
In addition to Malik, the USA was represented at the festival by Paul Thomas Andersen with the drama about the 50s “Master”, Harmony Korin with the comedy adventure drama “Leashback Vacations” with Selena Gomez in one of the main roles, Ramin Bahrani with the film “Any price”.
From Italy this time were Daniel Sipri with the film "He was a son" and Francesca Comencini with "Special Day". Together with the French, the Italians, led by director Marco Bellocchio, put up the painting "Sleeping Beauty."
In addition to these films, Rama Börstein (“Fill the Void”), Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (“Fifth Season”), Ulrich Seidl (“Paradise: Vera”), Xavier Giannoli (“Superstar”), Valeria Sarmiento (“Wellington”), Brillante Mendoza (“The Womb”), Olivier Assayas (“Something is in the Air”).
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov also participates in the main competition with the film "Treason" about jealousy, passion and the search for solutions in the face of difficult life circumstances.
In the program "Horizons", which presents new trends in the development of cinema, the 14th picture of Alexei Balabanov, the mystical film "I Want To" is also on display. Outside of the competition, the documentary work of the Russian director Lyubov Arkus "Anton is nearby" will be shown.
In just 12 days of the festival, viewers will see 50 world premieres and 29 restored archival films.
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