Trying always to mix an auteur cinema with a commercial flavor, the 72nd
Venice Film Festival (September 2 – 12) does so, by bringing in Lido high-profile filmmakers along with first-time international talents.
With 16 directors (out of 21 whose films have been selected) participating in the festival’s
Competition for the first time, this year΄s
Venezia 72 competition programme (world premieres), has included the names of Marco Bellochio, Laurie Anderson, Atom Egoyan, Cary Fukunaga, Amos Gitai, Charlie Kaufman, Aleksandr Sokurov and Jerzy Skolimowski. Among them, a Turkish filmmaker,
Emin Alper with
Frenzy (Turkey/France/Qatar, 2015).
Frenzy by Emin Alper (Turkey/France/Qatar, 2015)
The
Venezia 72 Jury, will be presided by Alfonso Cuarón, who will be accompanied by writer, screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrère, directors
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Pawel Pawlikowski, Francesco Munzi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lynne Ramsay, and actresses Diane Kruger and Elizabeth Banks.
The
Orizzonti international competition programme, will present films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.
Yorgos Zois΄ feature debut
Interruption (Greece/France/Croatia, 2015) is among the films selected and will be also competing for the
Lion of the Future “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film. Additionaly, the programme΄s shorts selection will screen
Backyards by
Ivan Salatic (Montenegro, 2015, 20΄) and
Belladonna by
Dubravka Turic (Croatia, 2015, 18΄).
President of the Orizzonti Jury section will be filmmaker Jonathan Demme, with director and screenwriter Alix Delaporte, actress Paz Vega, director Fruit Chan and actress Anita Caprioli completing the programme΄s Jury.
The 72nd edition of the festival will be opened by an Out of Competition film, Baltasar Kormákur΄s Everest. The section, which includes feature and documentary films, promises a powerful programme, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese (with a short film), Frederick Wiseman, Tsai Ming-Liang, Sergei Loznitsa, Noah Baumbach, Arturo Ripstein, Daniel Alfredson and Bertrand Tavernier, who will be honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Tavernier has been given (for the first time at the Venice) carte blanche to select some rare, forgotten or underestimated films for the Venice Classics section. Legends such as Kurosawa, Fellini, Ejzenstein, Lubitch, Chabrol, Melville and many others next to
Yilmaz Guney΄s
Hope (Turkey, 1970), best Turkish film ever in many polls.
Interruption by Yorgos Zois (Greece/France/Croatia, 2015)
Venice runs annualy two independent and parallel sections, the
International Critics’ Week and
Venice Days.
International Critics’ Week will feature a series of 7 debut films in competition. Among them we find
Motherland by
Senem Tuzen (Turkey/Greece, 2015) and
The Journey by
Adriano Valerio (Italy/Romania/Bulgaria/FYROM, 2015), two titles which, along with
Yorgos Zois΄
Interruption (Orizzonti programme) compete for the
Lion of the Future “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film, next to a number of international productions.
Commenting the 2015 selection, festival director Alberto Barbera stated: “The Film Festival’s program is a freeze-frame that lets us observe - from a bit closer in and with opportune discernment - some of the elements and subjects that might become the lodestar of this new constellation. We who have selected and isolated them from their context are aware that some might become part of a consolidated and mainstream current, while others will be swept away by the inexorable tide before someone has the time and the means to help them grow and thrive.”
Concluding, we should mention the
Sala Web initiative, which will return at the Mostra, in collaboration with
Festival Scope, the online platform for film professionals. Sala Web will serve as a parallel online showcase for films officially selected at the
Orizzonti Competition and
Biennale College. These films will be available for streaming during a full 5 days, on the same day as their world premiere on the Lido.