Actor Alessandro Borghi will host the opening and closing events of the 74th Venice International Film Festival 2017, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Alessandro Borghi will open the 74th Venice Film Festival on the evening of Wednesday, August 30th, on the stage of the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido) for the opening ceremony. On September 9th the actor will host the closing ceremony during which the winners of the Lions and the other official awards of the 74th Venice Film Festival will be announced.

Alessandro Borghi is one of the leading figure of the new generation of Italian actors. After many parts in several TV series, in 2016 Alessandro caught the public’s attention starring in the co-leading role in Claudio Caligari’s Non Essere Cattivo (Don’t Be Bad), presented during the 72nd Venice Film Festival and acclaimed by critics and public for the amazing performances by the actors involved; it has also been selected by Italy as its candidate film for the foreign-language Academy Award.  Later last year Alessandro played the leading role of “Numero 8” (Number 8) in Stefano Sollima’s crime movie Suburra. Thanks to his interpretations in Suburra and Non essere cattivo he gained two nominations for the David di Donatello. In 2016 Alessandro also appeared in Michele Vannucci’s debut film Il Più Grande Sogno (I Was a Dreamer), based on a true story. He also played the main role in Gabriele Mainetti’s short movie Ningyo. Both movies were presented during the last 73rd Venice Film Festival. The same year, Alessandro won the prestigious Nastro d’Argento as best actor revelation.

In 2017 he has been choosen to represent Italy at the Shooting Stars Film Festival in Berlin, an eminent award as well as a launch pad for the international film market. Moreover, this year he played in Fortunata, the latest film by Sergio Castellitto, which was presented during the 70th Cannes Film Festival. As for future projects, we will see Alessandro in Suburra-the series, the first Italian production by Netflix; Alessandro is currently on the set of Napoli Velata, the latest film by director Ferzan Ozpetek.