65th Venice International Film Festival
The 65th International Film Festival of Venice ( 65th Mostra Internazionale d' Arte Cinematografica ) were held until 6 September 2008 of 27 August. 3,689 films from 72 countries applied for participation in the festival, which is one of the three most important film festivals in the world. In the main section, competition, competed 21 feature films for the Golden Lion, the top prize of the festival. The award eventually went to the American film production The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky.
The festival was opened with Do visìvel ao Invisível, a seven- minute drama by Manoel de Oliveira, was in turn followed the American feature film Burn After Reading by Ethan and Joel Coen. The Russian actress Xenia Rappoport hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.
Festival director Marco Mueller, who as " pluralistic and thus wanted contradictory" described the event this year was dedicated to the festival which died in 2008, Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. In a retrospective Italian films were shown from 1946 to 1975, including many from the movement of Italian neorealism.
On 5 September 2008, the Italians Ermanno Olmi was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The 77 - year-old director had won, among others, in 1988 with his film adaptation The Legend of the Holy Drinker competition of Venice.
- 2.1 Movies
- 2.2 documentaries
Competition
Jury
This year's jury president was the German director Wim Wenders, who was in 1982 awarded the Golden Lion for the film The State of Things.
At his side five other jury members were
- John Landis, American film director
- Lucrecia Martel, Argentina film director
- Johnnie To, film director from Hong Kong
- Yuri Arabow, Russian Writer
- Valeria Golino, Italian actress ( Best Actor Award in Venice 1986)
Movies
In the competition 21 feature films were shown, most of them world premieres. Five of the films were produced in the United States, four films were from Italy.
Although German co-productions were regularly represented in recent years, rare German language films have always appeared in the main competition, the last time in 2003 with Margarethe von Trotta's Rose Street and 2006 with Barbara Albert's Fallen. 2008 ranking of the German director Christian Petzold with Jerichow for the Golden Lion, during the German opera director Werner Schroeter was represented with the French-speaking Nuit de chien in the competition.
The Greek director Theo Angelopoulos had also planned to introduce his new movie Dust of Time starring Bruno Ganz in the lead role in Venice, but that was already failed from disputes over the performance date in advance.
As favorites especially Hayao Miyazaki's socially critical Cartoons Gake no Ue no Ponyo were during the festival about a goldfish who becomes a man and becomes friends with a little boy, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker over the Iraq war and Jonathan Demme's family drama Rachel Getting Married traded.
Award winners
- Golden Lion: The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky
- Grand Jury Prize: Teza by Haile Gerima
- Silver Lion - Best Director: Bumaschny soldier by Alexei German
- Coppa Volpi - Best Actor: Silvio Orlando for Il papà di Giovanna
- Coppa Volpi - Best Actress: Dominique Blanc for L' Autre
- Marcello Mastroianni - Award - Best Young Actress: Jennifer Lawrence for The Burning Plain
- Special Lion: Ermanno Olmi for his oeuvre
- Special Jury Prize: Werner Schroeter for his " innovative, uncompromising and often provocative " work
- FIPRESCI Prize: Gabbla of Tariq Teguia
Jury President Wim Wenders wanted Mickey Rourke also bequeath the prize for best actor for his performance in The Wrestler, but could not make it because of the rules of the festival. Wenders asked about the festival management to rethink this.
Orizzonti
The section Orizzonti, the " new ways and possibilities " is dedicated to the film and want to advertise, especially for unconventional films that showed 18 feature films and two other films that were announced as a " surprise film " in the course of the festival ( Khastegi and Wanmei Shenhuo ).
In the international jury, the Belgian director Chantal Akerman who presided here. The other jury members were:
- Nicole Brenez, French film critic
- Barbara Cupisti, Italian actress
- José Luis Guerin, Spanish director
- Veiko Õunpuu, Estonian director
Like every year, prices in the two competition sections were awarded feature films and documentaries. The main prizes went to the movie Melancholia director of the Philippine Lav Diaz and the documentary Below Sea Level by Gianfranco Rosi. Special mentions were given Un lac Philippe Grandieux and where men of Huang Wenhai given.
As Eventi Orizzonti and as not taking part in the competition seven other documentaries were also listed, most of them Italian.
Movies
Documentary
Corto Cortissimo
In the series Corto Cortissimo 18 short films under 30 minutes in length were shown. As Eventi six short films including Eve were in addition to the films that will compete for awards, demonstrated the U.S. actress Natalie Portman, who hereby presented her directorial debut. In the film, Lauren Bacall plays a major role.
About the Awards in the section a jury chaired by American director Amos Poe, who worked here with producer Joana Vicente and the Italian critic Gianni Rondolino. The Golden Lion for Best Short film won the Mexican film Tierra y Pan by Carlos Armella. The reason the jury stated: "In a few minutes, and in one room there, the author has managed a dramatic tale of misery and loneliness to tell the narrative potential of cinematographic images exploring to the utmost. "
A special mention was given to Vacsora of Karchi Perlman and the Belgian short film by Koen De Onbaatzunchtigen Dejaegher was awarded the Prix UIP for Best European film in the Corto Cortissimo Competition. Koen Dejaeghers film is now a nominee for the European Film Award for " Best Short Film ".
Films out of competition
Like every year, numerous films outside the competition divisions were shown again in 2008. Some well-known filmmakers present their works as the public: the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami showed the film Shirin, Ethan and Joel Coen were represented with Burn After Reading and Claire Denis published 35 Rhums their current work.