Venice International Film Festival

Lido

This 11 day long film festival is conducted in Lido, Venice every year from late August to early September. This renowned film festival is conducted as the part of the Venice Biennale. The Venice Biennale was founded by Venetian City Council in 1895. Later, in 1932 the Count Giuseppe Volpi founded this international film festival (Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia).

The festival, when started, was not a competitive event. But the competitions started from its second edition two years later. Later it began to be a yearly event from 1935. The festival soon gained great acclaim all over the world and the number of participating countries began to increase rapidly. Even if the event suffered a minor setback during the Second World War years, it soon revived. From the year 1979 onwards the festival took up a modern image under the directorship of Carlo Lizzani.

Palazzo del cinema

The venue of this festival is along the main sea shore esplanade in the island of Lido. The main screening venue is the magnificent Palazzo del cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. This is an exquisite marble and glass edifice. Apart from the Palazzo, many other screening venues are present around the nearby centres like Palalido, casino and Palabiennale.

This film festival, which is the oldest of its kind, is aimed at providing an opportunity for the film enthusiasts from all over the world to enjoy the art and be its connoisseurs, after experiencing films from world renowned directors and actors. The film fraternity from the world over meet here and experience each other’s works and discuss the possibilities open to them to take the art forward for the betterment of the world.

The films are selected from various countries all over the world and a competition is conducted. This is one of the most prestigious film festivals. The principal award of this competition is the Golden Lion (Leone d’ Oro) which is awarded to the best film. Then the Silver Lion (Leone d’ Argento) is awarded to the best director. A third award, the Volpi cup ( Coppa Volpi) is awarded to the best actor and actress.

Besides screening of films, the festival also includes workshops and seminars about the history and relevance of cinema. It also evaluates and honours the contributions of celebrated artists of all times.The Venice International Film festival is conducted every year to promote the film making as an art. Now as film making is conducted in every country with a national relevance, it has become a major industry. The Venice International Film Festival provides a magnificent stage for the artists of the industry to perform and put their artistic prowess to test in the international scenario.

The 73^rd edition of the event is scheduled between 31^st August and 10^th September 2016. The director of this edition is Alberto Barbera. It is decided that this year’s festival will screen films from four young emerging directors, three from other parts of the world and one from Italy.

The Venice International Film Festival is aimed at spreading better awareness of the art and a better understanding of the film industry in respect of the world wide panorama. The fact that it takes place in one of the world’s most beautiful places makes it an even more cannot-be-missed event of the world.

 by Marina Chernyak