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Category Archives: Venice International Film Festival
Cancellation of the gala dinner for the opening ceremony of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival
La Biennale di Venezia announces that it has cancelled the gala dinner and reception scheduled for August 31st La Biennale di Venezia announces that it has cancelled the gala dinner and reception…
NY Film Academy Student Showcase to Open the Market at 73rd Venice Film Festival
The New York Film Academy (NYFA) is proud to announce a special student showcase as part of this year’s 73rd Venice Film Festival Market.
Providing an unprecedented opportunity for exposure and networking to a selection of our talented students, NYFA’s Venice Showcase will feature 5 short films spanning all three academic departments – fiction, documentary and animation. The NYFA event is set to open the brand-new Venice Production Bridge platform in the morning of September 1st at the Spazio Incontri of Venice’s Excelsior Hotel.
Italian actor and NYFA alumnus Giorgio Passoti (The Great Beauty, After Midnight, Salty Air) is scheduled to introduce the showcase and discuss his career after NYFA during a lively and informal Q&A with industry, press and general audience all encouraged to attend.
Following the showcase will be a networking cocktail hour from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m., as well as one-on-one info sessions for those interested in learning more about the Film Academy.
The NYFA Venice Showcase will include the following selections:
The Life of Janka, by Luis Henriquez Viloria (fiction)
After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, thousands of kids went to the streets and became a target for organizations of child traffickers. These kids were traded like livestock. “Life of Janka” is a fictional story of two brothers who go through such an experience.
Fumo, by Sean Miyakawa (fiction)
Set in the mid-1920’s, a frustrated sound composer works as one of the first sound engineers in the history of cinema who happened to be madly in love with the main actress of the production. On the day he decides to finally declare his love to her, he finds out about an affair going on between her and the director. The discovery drives him crazy.
Alive & Kicking: The Soccer Grannies of South Africa, by Lara-Ann de Wet (documentary)
In Limpopo, South Africa, the village grannies lace up their soccer boots and start kicking their way down the field – and through centuries of oppressive taboos. They play serious soccer and then break into the laughter and traditional song that help fuel their singular struggle for decent lives and a league of their own.
The Perfumist, by Yukari Akaba, Shannon Lee, Daniela Lobo Dias, Sandra Rivero Ortiz (animation)
“The Perfumist” is a dramatic story highlighting the battle of Machine-Equipped Man against Cosmic Nature. Seeking the perfect scent for his perfume within, what seems to be, an enchanted rainforest, Benedict Malville runs into the consequences of trampling on sacred, natural ground.
The Right Way, by Elena Zobak Alekperov & Flavia Groba Bandeira (animation)
A short animated story of the day in a mom’s life of raising her young child. While the child tests the mother’s patience, there is a final moment of relief after the mom reveals her secret oasis within the confines of the home.
About the 73rd Venice Film Festival
Dedicated to recently deceased Michael Cimino and Abbas Kiarostami, this year’s Venice Film festival includes new films from Natalie Portman, Terrence Malick, Ryan Gosling, Tom Ford, Amy Adams, and Derek Cianfrance competing for the event’s prestigious Golden Lion award, joining two lifetime Achievement Golden Lions for Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jerzy Skolimowski.
About New York Film Academy
With locations all around the world, the New York Film Academy has grown into an international film and performing arts school with a focus on learning by doing, providing its students with hands-on instruction. Students can choose to enroll in one of the Academy’s MFA, MA, BFA, BA, and AFA U.S. accredited degree programs and short-term workshops in filmmaking, acting for film, photography, producing, 3D animation, cinematography, screenwriting, documentary filmmaking, game design, musical theatre, broadcast journalism, music video, graphic design, illustration, and digital editing.
With more than 8,000 students from over 100 countries, NYFA offers courses in New York City, Los Angeles, South Beach (Miami), Sydney & Gold Coast in Australia, Florence, and more.
The New York Film Academy’s Florence, Italy location holds film and acting programs in a renovated renaissance era building, across the street from Le Cappelle Medici, moments away from the Duomo.
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Al Pacino, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin James, Jamie Foxx, and Jodie Foster are among the many figures in the film industry that have sent their family members to study at the New York Film Academy.
(Source:www.broadwayworld.com)
Images of the 60’s from the Venice International Film Festival
*Featured Photo: Brigitte Bardot illuminating Venice with her presence in 1958: the photographers chase her and she immediately becomes the center of social life on the Lido. “BB”, at the peak of her career, came to the 19th Venice Film Festival as part of the cast of the film En cas de malheur (Love Is My Profession) by Claude Autant-Lara. (Photo credit courtesy of Asac – la Biennale di Venezia.)
Dawn of the Dead – European Cut [Zombi, 1978] by George A. Romero restored in High Definition (4K)
At midnight on Friday September 2nd, in the Sala Giardino (Lido di Venezia), the world premiere screening will be held of the restored copy of George A. Romero’s masterpiece Dawn of the Dead – European Cut [Zombi, 1978] (USA-Italy, 115’), in the version edited and curated at that time by Dario Argento for the European market with music by Goblin.
The screening will be introduced with a presentation by Dario Argento himself, who was the producer of the film, and by Nicolas Winding Refn, a great admirer of Dawn of the Dead and supervisor of the restoration in high definition.
Dawn of the Dead – European Cut, a cult horror film that gave birth to the modern iconography of “the living dead”, as celebrated in the TV series The Walking Dead, is part of the Venice Classics section of the 73rd Venice Film Festival (31 August – 10 September 2016), and will be screened in a version remastered in 4K, by Koch Media in collaboration with Norton Trust and Antonello Cuomo.
Dawn of the Dead [Zombi, 1978] is the second chapter in the four-part series created by George A. Romero in 1968 with the Night of the Living Dead, later followed by Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005).
Dario Argento on Dawn of the Dead [Zombi]
“I am particularly pleased that Zombi is being re-released after so many years. Titanus, the distributor at the time, considered it a very strange film with too much action: the music was too extreme, they thought it would not be well received and I was a little scared myself by this terrible prophecy. I didn’t know what to do so I said: «Ok, let’s screen the world premiere in Turin, a city I love because that is where I filmed Deep Red; if it doesn’t do well there, we can do away with it». It was a Friday afternoon and I was rather terrified as I went to the theatre; but I remember seeing a lot of people as I walked over from the hotel and thought: so it can’t be going that bad!.. and in fact when I got there it was packed; I went in and thanked everyone for coming. The film was being shown after a lengthy series of mishaps in Italy: the censors made me cut out a lot of scenes, and as a result I withdrew it. They were asking me to cut far too much; I remember even thinking that the editing would no longer be comprehensible, so I made a series of small cuts, fixed it up a little, and was able to swing an emergency procedure (usually the censors take up to six months to review a film again). When the film was finally released it was forbidden to minors under the age of eighteen which, in my mind, was fairly serious, because we had conceived it for an audience of young people… I have a great memory of Zombi because it was so important for my career and for George’s as well”.
Nicolas Winding Refn on Dawn of the Dead [Zombi]
“I had always considered Dawn of the Dead, or Zombi, to be a clear example of great cinema, both innovative and outrageous at the same time. The most extreme and fascinating tale of American consumerism ever brought to the screen, there is nothing like it. I consider it a great honour to present the version restored in 4K of this masterpiece at the 2016 edition of the Venice Film Festival, which has always been important to me”.
Dawn of the Dead [Zombi] will be available next fall in Blu Ray 4K, Blu Ray and DVD for the Midnight Factory label, in a boxed set with additional contents that will include the other two versions of the film (Extended and Theatrical), also in high definition.
(Source:www.labiennale.org)
Pre-opening night of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival
Tuesday August 30th, 8:30 pm in the Sala Darsena
9 “views” of Venice and Luigi Comencini’s Tutti a casa (1960)
One hundred twenty years ago – and precisely on the night of July 9th, 1896 – the Cinématographe Lumière made its first appearance in Venice, with the screening of a programme composed of 15 “views”, held just a step away from Piazza San Marco at the Teatro Minerva. It was not until the following August 21st that for the first time the screening also introduced 3 films made in Venice: Arrival of a gondola at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Vaporetti at Rialto and The Legendary Pigeons of San Marco, which were followed by others in the days to come.To celebrate this important anniversary, on the Pre-opening night of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival (Tuesday August 30th, at 8:30 pm) in the Sala Darsena on the Lido, the public gathered to celebrate Comencini’s one-hundredth birthday, prior to the screening of the previously announced restored version of Luigi Comencini’s Tutti a casa, is invited to enjoy the programme of nine “views” made in Venice by the operators of the Cinématographe Lumière, commented in the theatre by the Director of the Institut Lumière of Lyon, Thierry Fremaux.
The films, which were made over three consecutive years (1896-98), are:
Arrivée en gondole, 1896, N°291
Pigeons sur la place Saint-Marc, N°292
Tramway sur le Grand Canal, 1896, N°293
Grand Canal avec barques, 1896, N°294
Panorama du Grand Canal pris d’un bateau, 1896, N°295
Panorama de la place Saint-Marc pris d’un bateau, N°296
Venise, place Saint-Marc, 1897, N°430
Arrivée en gondole des souveraines d’Allemagne et d’Italie au palais royal de Venise, 1898, N°1058
Départ en gondole, 1898, N°1059
The Biennale di Venezia wishes to thank Thierry Fremaux and the Institut Lumière for their valuable collaboration, as well as the Alliance française and Carlo Montanaro of La Fabbrica del Vedere in Venice.
The screening of the “views” will be followed, for the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great director Luigi Comencini (1916 – 2007), by the previously announced screening of Comencini‘s masterpiece Tutti a casa (Everybody Go Home, Italy/France, 1960) starring Alberto Sordi, Serge Reggiani, Carla Gravina and Eduardo De Filippo, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, for the world premiere of the digitally restored copy by Filmauro and CSC – Cineteca Nazionale di Roma.
Venetian audiences will be invited to the special Pre-opening tribute-night at the Sala Darsena on the Lido, beginning at 8:30 pm, thanks to the collaboration with the daily newspapers “Il Gazzettino”, “La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre” and “Il Corriere del Veneto”.
To attend the screening on the tribute-night in Sala Darsena free of charge, interested viewers can pick up their invitation at Ca’ Giustinian (San Marco 1364/a) or at the Lido (Bar Al Leone d’oro, on the corner of the Palazzo del Cinema on the side of Via Candia) starting on the afternoon of Friday August 26th through Tuesday August 30th (from 10 am – 1 pm and 3 pm to 7 pm) simply by presenting the coupon published from Friday 26th to Monday 29th August on “Il Gazzettino” or “La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre” (or, for online subscribers, by displaying the paid digital edition on their smartphones or tablets) or by following the instructions published on the “Corriere del Veneto” from Friday August 26th through Tuesday August 30th.
· For information on available invitations call +39 041 2726505
· Each coupon is good for one invitation for the free admission of one person to the screening
· Invitations will be distributed on a first come first served basis for the number of seats reserved for each newspaper
________ . ________
The 73rd Venice International Film Festival will be held on the Lido from August 31st to September 10th 2016 directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta.
Tutti a casa by Luigi Comencini is one of the most famous and successful examples of what made the “commedia all’italiana” immortal: the blend of comedy and drama, of real and grotesque, of courage and determination to survive. Comencini, with the autobiographical complicity of the two great screenwriters Age and Scarpelli and the bitter laughs provoked by the remarkable performance of Alberto Sordi, tells the story of the chaos that ensued on September 8th 1943, when Badoglio signed the armistice and the soldiers loyal to the King and Mussolini were abandoned to their own destinies, to face many dangers alone. In the film, Alberto Sordi, on the phone under German gunfire, asks his superiors: “Colonel, Sir, this is Lieutenant Innocenzi, something amazing just happened, the Germans have become allies of the Americans. What are we supposed to do?”
Tutti a casa is a “road movie” across the ruins and confusion reigning in Italy at that time, when the soldiers had no one to give them orders and one after another they decided to head back home: tutti a casa, everybody go home. In the story, Second Lieutenant Alberto Innocenzi (Sordi), who is used to obeying and not answering back, is abandoned by his soldiers and flees from north to south with his sick friend, the Neapolitan military engineer Ceccarelli (Serge Reggiani). He runs into German soldiers eager for retaliation who shoot at them, witnesses the odyssey of a Jewish girl attempting to escape (for whom a young Venetian soldier gives his life), meets an American prisoner hiding in an attic, is united with his father (Eduardo De Filippo) who wants to send him back to the Fascist army, until the final redemption during the 4 days of Naples. At the time Comencini stated: “On the 8th of September, people were abandoned to themselves, and that is what I wanted to describe”. The film was a box office hit, bringing in over a billion lire in ticket sales.
Luigi Comencini (1916-2007) who was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 1987 by the Biennale di Venezia, is considered one of the greatest masters of Italian-style comedy, as well as “the children’s director“. Among his comedies, his first masterpiece was Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love and Dreams, 1953), with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica, winner of the Silver Bear in Berlin, the prototype for what is known as “neorealismo rosa” and one of the highest-grossing films in the history of Italian cinema, followed over the years by other hit comedies such as Pane, amore e gelosia (Bread, Love and Jealousy, 1954), Mariti in città (Husbands in the City, 1957), Lo scopone scientifico (The Scientific Cardplayer, 1957) and Mio Dio, come sono caduta in basso! (Till Marriage Do Us Part, 1974).
Comencini addressed the theme of childhood early on in 1946 with Bambini in città, his first short documentary (which won an award in Venice and a Nastro d’argento), while Proibito rubare (Hey Boy, 1948), set among the street children in Naples, was his first feature-length film. His significant production of films on the theme of “childhood” continued with La finestra sul Luna Park (The Window to Luna Park, 1956), Incompreso (Misunderstood, 1966, in competition at Cannes and winner of a David di Donatello), Voltati Eugenio (1980, presented at the Venice Film Festival), Un ragazzo di Calabria (A Boy from Calabria, 1987, in competition in Venice) and Marcellino pane e vino (1991) his last film directed with his daughter Francesca. Also worthy of note are his versions of two classics of children’s literature, such as Le avventure di Pinocchio (The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1972) and Cuore (1984).
A co-founder in 1935 with Alberto Lattuada and Mario Ferrari of the Cineteca italiana in Milan, Comencini directed a total of forty feature-length films, excluding his documentaries, screenplays, and investigative reports for Rai television. He experimented with many genres other than comedy, such as murder mysteries (La donna della domenica, The Sunday Woman, 1975), melodrama (Incompreso, 1966), literary films (La ragazza di Bube, 1963), period films (Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano, 1974), film-operas (La Bohème, 1987), but also experimented with more particular films (Cercasi Gesù, 1982, winner of a Nastro d’argento). In an interview he granted in the early 1980s, Comencini declared that he was willing to defend ten of his films, that “would never have seen the light of day if I had not made other flawed films, wholly or in part. But I have never made a film in bad faith”.
(Source:www.labiennale.org)
Cancellation of the gala dinner for the opening ceremony of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival
La Biennale di Venezia announces that it has cancelled the gala dinner and reception scheduled for August 31st
La Biennale di Venezia announces that it has cancelled the gala dinner and reception on the beach that have traditionally followed the opening ceremony of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, scheduled for August 31st.
La Biennale di Venezia shares in the bereavement, expresses its deepest sorrow for the victims, and its utmost solidarity and support to the communities struck by the earthquake.
Venice, 25 August 2016
(Source:www.labiennale.org)
Final Cut in Venice
The fourth edition of the FINAL CUT IN VENICE workshop will take place from September 3 to September 5, 2016 during the Venice Production Bridge of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival (Lido di Venezia, 31st August – 10th September 2016).The Festival’s purpose is to provide concrete assistance in the completion of films from Africa and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria; and to offer producers and directors an opportunity to present films still in the production phase to international film professionals and distributors in order to facilitate post-production and promote co-production partnerships and market access.
The workshop consists in three days of activities, in which the working copies of a maximum of six selected films (see articles 5 and 6) are presented to producers, buyers, distributors and film festival programmers. Networking, encounters and meetings will allow directors and producers to interact directly with the workshop participants.
The workshop also includes screenings of material of the selected films in the presence of 
the directors and producers. Only Industry pass holders will be allowed to attend the screenings: producers, distributors, operators, buyers, festival programmers, representatives of the institutions and others invited in advance by the Festival management.
the directors and producers. Only Industry pass holders will be allowed to attend the screenings: producers, distributors, operators, buyers, festival programmers, representatives of the institutions and others invited in advance by the Festival management.The workshop will conclude with the awarding of prizes, in kind or in cash, for the financial support of the films in their post-production phase:
- up to € 7,000 for the accessible contents of the film for audiences with sensory disabilities: subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired and audio description for the blind and visually impaired, with audio subtitles, in Italian or English, offered by SUB-TI ACCESS Srl (Turin)
(the SDH file and the audio described soundtrack for DCP will be provided) - up to € 7,000 for the production of the DCP master and Italian or English subtitles, offered by Sub-Ti Ltd. (London);
- up to € 10,000 for digital color correction, for the production of a DCP master and French or English subtitles, offered by Titra Film (Paris)
- Up to € 15,000 for the sound mixing offered by Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris);
- € 15,000 for the color correction of a feature-length film offered by Laser Film (Rome) for up to 50 hours of work (technician included);
- € 5,000 for the purchase of two-year broadcasting rights by Rai Cinema;
- € 5,000 offered by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) to an African or Arabian film from a member-country of La Francophonie
- A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 1,500), offered by the Festival International du Film d’Amiens;
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- A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 1,500), offered by the Festival International de Films de Fribourg;
- Marketing, publicity and distribution in the Arab World for one Arab project is offered by MAD Solutions (except for projects already attached to MAD Solutions).
For more complete details click here.
(S0urce:www.labiennale.org)
Seven US films in competition at Venice
(ANSA) – Rome, August 22 – The United States has seven films in competition at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival running in the lagoon city from August 31 to September 10. The line-up is a mixed bag of genres and themes, including the romantic horror-thriller The Bad Batch written and directed by American-Iranian director Ana Lily Amirpour, the family drama The Light between Oceans by Derek Cianfrance, Nocturnal Animals by Tom Ford, recounting the tragic misadventures of a man on holiday with his family, and the biopic Jackie by Pablo Larrain biopic starring Natalie Portman in the role of Jackie Kennedy.
Other US films to look out for at Venice are Voyage of Time, a documentary film written and directed by Terrence Malick examining the birth and death of the known universe, new alien invasion movie Arrival by Denis Villeneuve, loosely inspired by the novel Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, and La La Land, a homage to the Golden Age of the American musical written and directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend and J. K. Simmons. photo: Stone and Gosling in La La Land.
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(www.ansa.it.news/)
The Burj Khalifa pops up in Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time film trailer
Post by Larry Gleeson
By Chris Newbould
The UAE just can’t seem to stop popping up in movies lately, and the latest appearance finds the Burj Khalifa and surrounding Downtown Dubai popping up in the trailer for Terrence Malick’s epic, 40+ years (and counting) in the making Voyage of Time.
The film, somewhat bravely, seeks to chart the history of time from its beginning to its end, and features a 40-minute IMAX version narrated by Brad Pitt – himself no stranger to the UAE following last year’s War Machine shoot – while a feature length 35mm version will reportedly be narrated by Cate Blanchett.
We don’t imagine the Burj will take quite such a starring role as it did in, say 2011’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, after all with the entire, as yet unfinished, history of time to squeeze into 40 minutes there’s likely to be quite a bit of competition for airtime, but the aerial shots we see in the trailer are pretty impressive, nonetheless.
The long-awaited movie will finally premiere at the Venice Film Festival in Septemeber, beginning its international roll out the following month.
(Source: http://www.thenational.ae)