Venice Film Festival
Venice International Film Festival logo
Location	Venice lido, Italy
Founded	1932 - today
Directed by	Alberto Barbera Director
Festival date	end August/start September
Language	Italian English
http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema

The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (Italian Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia) is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi and in other venues nearby. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale (Italian Biennale di Venezia), for over a century one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world (founded in 1895). It is known world-wide for the International Film Festival, the International Art Exhibition and the International Architecture Exhibition, and continues the great tradition of the Festival of Contemporary Music, the Theatre Festival, now flanked by the Festival of Contemporary Dance.

The Film Festival's principal awards are the Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion), which is awarded to the best film screened in competition at the festival, the Leone d'Argento (Silver Lion) for the Best Director, and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup), which is awarded to the best actor and actress. The Jury may also choose to award a Special Lion for an overall work to a director or actor of a film presented in the main competition section.

The other sections are: Orizzonti section (Horizons), open to all “custom-format” works, with a wider view towards new trends in the expressive languages that converge in film. The awards of the Orizzonti section are: the Orizzonti Prize the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize (for feature-length films) the Orizzonti Short Film Prize the Orizzonti Medium-length Film Prize

Controcampo Italiano section, presents a panorama on Italian cinema with 7 narrative feature-length films, 7 short films, and 7 documentaries, all world premiere screenings and all in competition in their respective categories. The awards of this section are: the Controcampo Award (for narrative feature-length films) the Controcampo Award (for short films) the Controcampo Doc Award (for documentaries)

In 2012 the 69th festival took place from 29 August to 8 September.^[1]

Golden Lion winners [edit]

The 65th Venice International Film Festival

See a list of winners at Golden Lion

The Golden Lion is the festival's highest award for best film in the competition section Venezia (plus the number of the edition).

Special Jury Prize [edit]

See list of winners at Special Jury Prize (Venice Film Festival)

A Special Jury Prize is awarded to one or two films in most years.

Silver Lion for best director [edit]

See list of winners at Silver Lion

The Silver Lion is awarded to the best director in the competitive section Venezia (plus the number of the edition).

Volpi Cups [edit]

For a list of winners, see Volpi Cup.

The Volpi Cups are awarded to actors. Formal awards for best actor and best actress have been given since 1934. In the mid-1990s awards were also given to supporting actors and actresses.

Golden Osella [edit]

There are two Golden Osella Prizes: for Best Technical Contribution (to cinematographers, composers, etc.) and for Best Screenplay.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award [edit]

• 2007 Kitano Takeshi for Glory to the Filmmaker!
• 2008 Abbas Kiarostami for Shirin
• 2008 Agnès Varda for The Beaches of Agnès'
• 2009 Sylvester Stallone for Rambo^[2]
• 2010 Mani Ratnam for Raavanan
• 2011 Al Pacino for Wilde Salome^[3]
• 2012 Spike Lee for Bad 25^[4]

Past awards [edit]

Mussolini Cups [edit]

The Mussolini Cups were the top awards from 1934 to 1942. Named after Italy's then dictator prime minister, Benito Mussolini, they were abandoned upon his ousting in 1943, and eventually returned as the Grand International Prize of Venice in 1947 (see Golden Lion).

Mussolini Cup for best Italian Film [edit]

• 1934 Teresa Confalonieri by Guido Brignone
• 1935 Casta Diva by Carmine Gallone
• 1936 Lo squadrone bianco by Augusto Genina
• 1937 Scipione l'Africano by Carmine Gallone
• 1938 Luciano Serra pilota by Goffredo Alessandrini
• 1939 Abuna Messias by Goffredo Alessandrini
• 1940 L'assedio dell'Alcazar by Augusto Genina
• 1941 La corona di ferro by Alessandro Blasetti
• 1942 Bengasi by Augusto Genina

Mussolini Cup for best foreign film [edit]

• 1934 Man of Aran by Robert J. Flaherty (United Kingdom)
• 1935 Anna Karenina by Clarence Brown (United States)
• 1936 Der Kaiser von Kalifornien by Luis Trenker (Germany)
• 1937 Un carnet de bal by Julien Duvivier (France)
• 1938 Olympia 1.Teil – Fest der Völker by Leni Riefenstahl (Germany)
• 1940 Der Postmeister by Gustav Ucicky (Germany)
• 1941 Ohm Krüger by Hans Steinhoff (Germany)
• 1942 Der große König by Veit Harlan (Germany)

Best director awards [edit]

• 1935 King Vidor for The Wedding Night
• 1936 Jacques Feyder for La Kermesse Héroique
• 1937 Robert J. Flaherty and Zoltan Korda for Elephant Boy
• 1938 Carl Froelich for Heimat

See also [edit]

• Venice Biennale
• Rome Film Festival
• Festival del film Locarno

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Venice Film Festival

• La Biennale di Venezia – Official website (English) (Italian)
• Venice International Film Festival history at La Biennale di Venezia website
• Venice Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database

Coordinates: 45°24′22″N 12°22′02″E / 45.405975°N 12.367290°E / 45.405975; 12.367290