Mia Madrefrom acclaimed Italian director Nanni Moretti tells the story of a woman, Margherita, played by Margherita Buy, balancing her harried career life as a director with the demands of her latest movie juxtaposed against a home life with her 13-year old daughter and dying mother.
Characteristically self-reflective and autobiographical, Moretti’s latest work, Mia Madre, addresses the poignancy of human transience, how we process loss and gain strength through humor. Mia Madre premiered in the Main Competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize while actress Margherita Buy received accolades at Italy’s 2015 Donatello Awards capturing the Best Actress Prize. Writing credits for Mia Madre, were shared among Moretti, Valia Santella, Gaia Manzini, Chiara Valerio, and Francesco Piccolo. Other works Nanni Moretti is known for include The Son’s Room (2001), winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and Palm d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, Dear Diary (1993), winner Best Director at Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globe, Italy, Best Film, and The Caiman (2006), nominated for Palm d’Or.
Fortunately for Ms. Buy’s character, Margherita, Director Moretti hired John Turturro to play against Margherita in the form of a hammed-up Italian-American actor, Barry Huggins, who rarely can think of anything other than himself. Barry’s annoying, self-indulgent personality grinds on Margherita and her crew alike during filming as he repeatedly goes up on the delivery of his lines while antagonizing the set crew with impertinent demands for mustache combing and even going so far as challenging directorial authority. However, these tense filming moments add some emotional counterweights to the deep familial moments Margherita engages in with her mother, Ada, played exquisitely by veteran actress Giulia Lazzarini. Ada is a retired schoolteacher, admired, respected and loved by those around her glimpsed by her painstaking attention to her granddaughter’s Latin grammar lessons and in her overall well-being.
All in all, the interactions Ada has with Margherita and her thirteen year-old granddaughter, Livia, played solidly by Beatrice Mancini, provide profound insights into the day-to-day struggles professionals like Margherita face off the set and the emotional ramifications that can carry over on to the set. The grief, fear and vulnerability Margherita exudes with Ada adds an enormous sensitivity to her on-set, director’s demeanor. Throughout the shoots, her emotional struggle comes very close to consuming her. And this is where the brilliance of casting comes into play as Turturro’s outlandish Huggins’ boasting and audacious behavior off-set provide a much needed respite to Margherita’s ‘pressure cooker’ life situation. Just when it appears she’s had enough, Turturro’s character manages to create a moment in which Margherita is able to release the inner tensions and when she does Buy’s character captivates with her big screen emotives.
In my opinion, this is the strength of the film. Yet, Moretti adds a masterful touch with a subtlety sure to appeal to film buffs and scholars alike. While the on-location filming scenes add a emotional counterweight that they aren’t real. And they don’t feel real nor do they appear real. In addition, the film within a film theme is cliche’ with a highly fabricated labor dispute conflict being the core issue complete with nonsensical dialogue adds to the falseness. so much so that at one point, Turturro’s Huggins bellows out in frustration that none of what they are doing is real and he desperately wants to go back to real life! It’s almost as though he’s harking back to the filmmaking genesis of Italian Neorealism and its quasi-reaction to the state of Italian cinema prior to WWII. Almost…
Mia Madre opens in Los Angeles and New York August 26th, 2016 (followed by a national roll-out).
The 73rd Venice Film Festival will screen the four feature films selected, developed and produced at Biennale College – Cinema, a laboratory for advanced training dedicated to the production of low cost films. The laboratory was created by the Biennale di Venezia in 2012 and is open to young filmmakers from all over the world. The four films are: Orecchie, directed by Alessandro Aronadio and produced by Costanza Coldagelli; La Soledad, directed by Jorge Thielen Armand and produced by Adriana Herrera and Manon Ardisson; Una Hermana – One Sister, directed by Sofia Brockenshire and produced by Verena Kuri; and Mukti Bhawan, directed by Shubhashish Bhutiani and produced by Sanjay Bhutiani.
The Biennale also admitted, as a one-time exception, the top-ranked Italian project, considering its particular interest and quality. The goal is to present the 4 feature-length films, debut or second works, at the coming 73rd Venice International Film Festival (31 August – 10 September 2016), directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta.
The 8 projects that will not continue to the second workshop will in any case enjoy an online follow-up and will be given various opportunities to find co-producers in collaboration with IFP, TorinoFilmLab and others.
Biennale College – Cinema enjoys the support of the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Direction Cinema, and the Regione del Veneto. For the fourth year in a row, it will rely on the academic collaboration of the IFP in New York and the TorinoFilmLab, and will continue its collaboration with the Busan International Film Festival. The Director is Alberto Barbera, the Head of Programme is Savina Neirotti.
The call for participation in the fifth edition (2016-2017) of the Biennale College – Cinema recently closed on July 1st. Once again participants registered from all over the world. In the coming weeks a selection process will take place to choose the next 12 projects and teams who will be invited to the first workshop in October, the first step in a development process that will end at the 2017 Venice Film Festival with the screening of three new low-cost films. The selection of the 12 projects will be announced at a Biennale College – Cinema press conference that will take place during the Venice Festival.
So far 9 feature-length films have been made during the first (2012/2013), second (2013/2014) and third (2014/2015) editions of the Biennale College – Cinema, and screened as world premieres respectively at the 70th Venice International Film Festival 2013, at the 71st Venice International Film Festival 2014, and at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival 2015 and later at other festivals, winning many awards and receiving excellent critical reviews.
The three feature-length films made during the first edition of the Biennale College – Cinema (2012-2013)
• Memphis by Tim Sutton (director, Usa), John Baker (producer, Usa).
• Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director, Thailand), Aditya Assarat (producer, Thailand).
• Yuri Esposito by Alessio Fava (director, Italy), Max Chicco (producer, Italy).
The three feature-length films made during the second edition of the Biennale College – Cinema (2013-2014)
• Blood Cells by Joseph Bull (director, Great Britain), Luke Seomore (director, Great Britain), Ben Young and Samm Haillay (producers, Great Britain).
• H. by Rania Attieh (director, Lebanon), Daniel Garcia (director, Usa), Shruti Rya Ganguly (producer, India), Pierce Varous (producer, Usa).
• Short Skin by Duccio Chiarini (director, Italy), Babak Jalali (producer, Iran/ Great Britain).
The three feature-length films made during the third edition of the Biennale College – Cinema (2014-2015)
• Baby Bump by Kuba Czekaj (director, Poland), Magdalena Kaminska and Agata Szymanska (producers, Poland).
• Blanka by Kohki Hasei (director, Japan), Flaminio Zadra (producer, Italy).
• The Fits by Anna Rose Holmer (director, Usa), Lisa Kjerulff (producer, Usa).
There are two experimental films called Events In A Cloud Chamber. One was made by the artist Akbar Padamsee in 1969. The other is by Ashim Ahluwalia in 2016. The first film was a lost experiment, while the second title is an attempt at retrieval and reconstruction. Ahluwalia’s project has been selected for the prestigious Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10). It has been produced by Ahluwalia’s company, Future East, and the Mumbai art gallery Jhaveri Contemporary.
The filmmaker of the acclaimed documentary John and Jane and the feature Miss Lovely packs into 22 minutes and 54 seconds the modernist giant’s approach to art and his two attempts at avant-garde filmmaking. The first one, Syzygy, made in 1969, is a formal exercise in plotting dots and lines on a blank canvas. Syzygy was screened to the general befuddlement of viewers who had no clue that they were watching one of the earliest steps towards creating an indigenous experimental cinema. Padamsee followed up Syzygy with Events In A Cloud Chamber, in which he created an abstract landscape though drawing, shapes made out of stencils, and photographic slides. The score was provided by classical musician Gita Sarabhai, who famously inspired John Cage’s composition, 4’33”. After Padamsee screened Events at a few places, the film’s single print traveled to the Delhi Art Expo in the 1970s, after which it vanished.
The new film, like the old one, has been made on 16mm. Ahluwalia reconstructs Padamsee’s vision through a collage of images, some archival and some spectral (the contemporary portions have been shot by KU Mohanan). The film patches together a conversation with the 88 year-old artist, whose advanced age restricts him to a wheelchair, clips from home videos made by Ahluwalia’s grandfather that evoke life in the 1940s, scenes from Syzygy, and Films Division footage on International Film Festival of India editions. These seemingly disparate elements cohere beautifully into an investigation into themes of impermanence and evanescence in art and the power of cinema to make the past come alive.
Ashim Ahluwalia
Excerpts from an interview with Ahluwalia.
An investigation into a lost film is filled with cinematic possibilities. What made you choose the form we see in ‘Events in a Cloud Chamber’? Since Events is about a “lost film” it just seemed natural to use other “lost” pieces of celluloid – including some 8mm home movies my grandfather shot in the late 1940s, as well as “found” material from the Films Division archive. This footage uncovers new or hidden meanings, especially in the context of Akbar’s childhood or youth in Bombay – since no other imagery exists of that period. I really didn’t want to make a traditional “talking heads” documentary because it didn’t evoke much. On a broader level, celluloid, magnetic tape and all the things that we used to make films themselves are being “lost” – we just have less and less physical media now, and perhaps this is also something that Events is about.
Events in a Cloud Chamber (2106)
You are resurrecting Akbar Padamsee’s lost film as you go along, but you are also, in one sense, remaking it. Yeah, completely. Loss is often associated with sadness, but it can also be a foundation for something new, with the missing artwork taking on a second life, like a kind of reincarnation. For me, this was a way of situating my filmmaking within the tradition of other Indian artists, in this case Akbar, who had tried to make something so different over 40 years ago. It’s just that the world wasn’t ready for it then. I also think that his radical, unique film was at the risk of being forgotten. I didn’t want that.
There is a sense of a passage of time in the film, as well as the sense of an end, in a way, indicated by the spectral imagery of a frail-looking Padamsee. I’ve always liked the weirdness of ghost stories –haunted houses, sunken cities…things like that. So, yeah, on the one hand, we tried to remake this phantom of a film – Events in a Cloud Chamber – and on another, my film became a way for me to understand what it means to be an artist as you age and near the end. More than just the disappearance of an artwork or an aborted attempt at an experimental film movement, it suggests ideas about mortality.
It’s a personal matter for me because I think about my own end. I think about the end of things, like the planet for example, generally. Maybe this is not a good thing but I’ve never settled into the comfort that anything we leave behind will actually be remembered. Most art and human history is lost. Just a minuscule fraction survives and yet we are so confident of being remembered. So does art stop aging and preclude death? What does it actually mean to make art or anything for that matter?
Akbar Padamsee in ‘Events in a Cloud Chamber’ (2106)
India was wrapping its head around experimental cinema back in the 1970s. Padamsee didn’t make another film after his second effort. Has the scene changed for the better?
Akbar’s film work is still so radical that it doesn’t have a context or a home of any kind, after almost half a century. He was rejected both by the cinema and the artist community, and it caused him to stop making films.
Things have changed a little bit now, and there is a tiny space – but not as much space as there should be. I needed to make this film outside of the traditional film context, as it didn’t seem to fit there at all.
How and where will your film be shown in India? I felt this film was more suited to working with an art gallery as producer and distributor. The gallery, Jhaveri Contemporary, is keen to do a show in November where they will screen the film over the course of a week. Events in a Cloud Chamber is, after all, about a painter who happened to make some of the most radical films in this country, so maybe after all these decades, we kind of managed to find his work a home.
It took Carlo Lizzani, director from 1979 to 1982, to win back international prestige for the Festival, flanking films in competition with significant retrospectives, sections devoted to experimentation (“Officina”) and most importantly the new section “Mezzogiorno-Mezzanotte” devoted to spectacular films (Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.), remakes (Vertigo, Leave Her to Heaven) or eccentrics, ideated by the great, late critic Enzo Ungari. The formula inaugurated by the Lizzani-Ungari duo was to become a model for festivals throughout the world.
In 1980 the Golden Lion was re-introduced, with an ex aequo award for Louis Malle (Atlantic City) and John Cassavetes (Gloria). Over these years Venice helped establish New German Cinema throughout the world. Filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Margarethe Von Trotta (the first woman to win the Golden Lion) received the highest recognition at the Festival, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) was screened in episodes to great acclaim while the controversial Querelle de Brest, presented in ’82, a matter of months after the death of the director, divided the jury when it did not win the Golden Lion.
The new course was consolidated in 1983, under the direction of Gian Luigi Rondi. The Festivals were numbered once again, expanded organization planned for, the sections were made permanent fixtures and greater attention given to the masters of cinema from the past and present. Godard won in ’83 with Prénom Carmen, Zanussi in ’84 with A Year of the Quiet Sun, Agnes Varda in ’85 with Vagabonde, Rohmer in ’86 with Le rayon vert. 1984 saw the creation of SIC, the International Critics’ Week, run independently by the National Italian Film Critics Union and devoted to debut and second works.
Guglielmo Biraghi, writer and film critic for the Rome daily “Il Messaggero”, not to mention director of the Taormina Festival, became the 14th director of the Venice Festival in 1987. Widely travelled and a great linguist, Biraghi (who passed away in 2001) distinguished his mandate (extended for five festivals up until 1991) with a taste for experimentation and discovering unusual filmmakers and types of cinema. Biraghi’s first Festival featured a competition line-up of an Indian, Lebanese, Swiss, Norwegian, Korean and Turkish film. In 1989 he presented O Recado das Ilhas by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, the very first film from the Cape Verde islands ever to be screened at an international festival.
Well organized and with a workable programme (competition, International Critics’ Week, tribute to Mankiewicz), appreciated by the experts (Biraghi’s nomination was given full backing by the Union of Critics), Biraghi’s first Festival assigned an award to festival veteran Louis Malle (Au revoir les enfants), discovered Carlo Mazzacurati in the Critics’ Week (Notte italiana), presented important films such as The Untouchables by Brian De Palma, The Dead by John Huston and The House of Games by David Mamet. Considerable hue and cry was caused by the “experiment” Giulia e Giulia, a film by Peter Del Monte produced by the Rai (Italian National Broadcasting) and shot with “high definition” cameras, though it did not receive critical acclaim.
In ’88 Biraghi enriched the programme with the sections “Orizzonti”, “Notte” and the “Eventi speciali”, including the film The Last Temptation by Martin Scorsese. A sentimental-erotic re-interpretation of the final days of Christ, the film stirred up a hornet’s nest of polemics in religious circles in both America and Italy, before it was screened in Venice. The film was screened in its entirety in the Palazzo del Cinema, protected as if it were a bunker, and Scorsese outlined the artistic reasons behind his choice at a crowded but orderly press conference. The 1988 Festival saw the discovery of the talent of Pedro Almodovar (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) and a comedy of international success A Fish Called Wanda. 1989 on the other hand was the year of Polish director Kieslowski and his Dekalog (Ten Commandments), one of which was shown each day, dividing the interest of both public and press. Together with Kieslowski, the start of the Festival was Nanni Moretti with his much-debated Palombella rossa excluded from the official selection but presented in the International Critics’ Week.
A Perth film based on a disturbed couple with striking similarities to David and Catherine Birnie has been selected to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival – one of the top three international festivals in the world.
The kidnap thriller, Hounds of Love, began shooting in Western Australia earlier this year, drawing its storyline from a number of infamous local and international crimes.
Emma Booth and Stephen Curry in Perth film, Hounds of Love. (Photo: Australia on Screen/Jean-Paul Horr)
Award-winning Perth film maker Ben Young created the film, which stars Emma Booth, Stephen Curry and Ashleigh Cummings.
It is the second WA film to ever be accepted into the Venice International Film Festival.
A scene from Hounds of Love. (Photo: Australia on Screen)
The storyline is understood to centre around a teenage girl who is abducted from a suburban street by a husband and wife couple in the mid-1980s – but producer Melissa Kelly has previously denied the film is inspired by the Birnie murders, claiming it is fiction.
David and Catherine Birnie kidnapped, raped and murdered three women and a teenager in the 1980s – holding their victims captive in their Perth home.
The pair were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in jail after a teenager they abducted from a Nedlands street escaped and alerted police.
Mr Young did not directly address the rumours of the Birnie connection on Wednesday, but said he was thrilled to have worked with such a talented group of people.
“I’m so thrilled that all the wonderful and talented cast and crew, who took a risk on this West Australian film, are being recognised on the international stage,” he said.
According to Screenwest, which partly funded Hounds of Love, the feature film is one of the first to be developed, filmed and post-produced entirely in WA.
“It attracted international recognition when it was pitched at the European Film Market in Berlin last year, and its selection for Venice Days is a coup for the local film industry, and a testament to the talent development programs implemented by Screenwest,” Screenwest said in a statement.
The Venice International Film Festival runs from August 31 to September 10, 2016 and is the oldest film festival in the world.
Hounds of Love will premiere during Venice Days – the equivalent to the Cannes Director’s Fortnight.
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — A co-production between Malaysia and Philippines called Singing in Graveyards is set to represent Asia at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.
The movie, which will be making its world premiere at said festival, is the only Asian movie that will be competing at the festival’s 31st edition of Critics’ Week, In Competition.
It is also up for the Lion of the Future Award from the Main Section of the festival.
Singing in Graveyards marks the directorial debut by Malaysian producer Bradley Liew, who received the Visions Sud Est Production Support Fund to make his first feature.
This isn’t the first time for the 26-year-old filmmaker to collaborate with Filipino talents, as he also previously produced Lav Diaz’s When The Waves Are Gone, which won the Paris Coproduction Village Award at the 20th Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).
Starring Filipino-British singer-songwriter Pepe Smith, Singing in Graveyards tells the story of 68-year-old Pepe, an impersonator of a Filipino rock legend who lives alone on the borders of reality, imagination and mysticism.
Also part of the cast are Filipino actors Mercedes Cabral, Susan Africa, Sunshine Teodoro, Bernardo Bernando, Matt Daclan and Joel Saracho, as well as producer Bianca Balbuena, filmmaker Lav Diaz, and singer Ely Buendia.
The 2016 Venice International Film Festival will run at Venice Lido from August 31 to September 10.
The Biennale di Venezia announces a new title in the lineup of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival (August 31st – September 10th), presented in collaboration with the Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days.
It is the documentary film by Enrico Caria The Man Who Didn’t Change History, freely inspired by the diaries of archaeologist and art historian Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, “Il viaggio del Fuehrer in Italia”, and made with the images from the archives of Istituto Luce – Cinecittà.
“Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli is a renowned figure among Italian art historians and archaeologists,” declared Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival. “A lesser-known fact is that, forced to serve as a guide for Hitler and Mussolini during the Nazi leader’s trip to Italy, he considered the idea of organizing an assassination attempt to get rid of the two unwelcome dictators. Caria reconstructs the incredible affair with irony and documentary precision, raising questions that continue to be relevant today”.
“I am thankful to Alberto Barbera,” says Giorgio Gosetti, director of the Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days, “for having agreed to let us join him in an event that not only highlights Enrico Caria’s vivid talent, but opens up a chapter in Italian history that has much to teach our present time. The protection of Italy’s historical legacy, the power of beauty versus the brutality of dictatorship, the figure of a great intellectual such as archaeologist Bianchi Bandinelli, and the paradoxical affair with Mussolini and Hitler, are all elements of cultural and political consideration to which this fictional documentary (rigorous, however, in its use of sources) gives extraordinary relevance”.
Enrico Caria is an Italian director, writer and journalist. Born in Rome (1957), he has worked as a cartoonist and journalist for “Paese Sera”, “Cuore” “Repubblica”, “L’Unità”, “Il Mattino”, “Il Fatto quotidiano”, “Le Iene”. He is a screenwriter for radio, television and cinema. He has directed dark or satirical comedies (17, ovvero: l’incredibile e triste storia del cinico Rudy Caino, Carogne, Blek Giek, L’era legale) and the docu-film Vedi Napoli e poi muori. He has published two books “Bandidos” (for Feltrinelli) and “L’uomo che cambiava idee” (for Rizzoli).
Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli (Siena, 1900 – Rome, 1975), an archaeologist and art historian, contributed significantly to renewing the study of archaeology and ancient art in Italy, in tune with the European culture of his time. In the 1930s he taught archaeology at the universities of Cagliari, Pisa, Groningen (Holland) and Florence. In 1935 he founded the “Critica d’arte” review (1935) with Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti. In 1938 he was commissioned by the Ministry of Popular Culture to serve as a guide for Adolf Hitler during his visit to Rome and Florence. He later accepted to hold lectures in Germany and to guide Hermann Goering during his visit to Rome. The following year he refused the offer to direct the Italian Archaeological School in Athens, which had just dismissed its Jewish director Alessandro Della Seta, and in 1942 refused the offer by the Ministry to teach the “History of Italian Civilization” in Berlin. He then demonstrated his definitive opposition to Fascism by joining the clandestine liberal-socialist movement (which later developed into the Partito d’Azione). After the war and through 1964, he taught at the University of Rome. He founded the magazine “Società” (1947). His many publications include: Storicità dell’arte classica (1943), Archeologia e cultura (1961), Dal diario di un borghese (1962), Rome: The Center of Power, 500 B.C. to A.D. 200 (1969), Rome: The Late Empire, Roman Art A.D. 200–400 (1970).
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.
If the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival was dominated by important and consolidated “cinema masters,” the red carpet at the 73rd Venice Film Festival will be taken over by marvelous authors.
Looking at the lineup recently presented in Rome, next year’s festival could be defined as the best of Alberto Barbera, Venice’s artistic director. If the key challenge is always to combine “cinema d’auteur” with the legitimate tastes of the general public, this “Mostra” will potentially bring a perfect balance to the lagoon city.
A closer look at the main competition, with six American films, reveals a strong comeback by the big American players in an edition that can be defined as Euro-Atlantic. On one side of the Atlantic Ocean, there is Malick, Larrain, Villeneuve, Ford and Chazelle. On the other side, there is Konchalovsky, Wenders, Kusturica, Brize and Ozon.
In between these two titanic armadas there will be a lonely Asian director, Filipino Lav Diaz (The Woman Who Left), making the 73rd with one of the smallest Asian representations in recent history. But next year’s festival will not only lack Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Iranian filmmakers. Africa, with its vibrant Magreb cinematography, will be also out of the picture.
Compared to the recent Berlin and Cannes festivals, the Venice selection goes into another direction – one that prefers films based on literature (novels and theatrical plays) and history over socio-political stories. The world’s immigration and economic crises have been forgotten, at least for now. Instead, there is a more intellectual approach based on the past as source of inspiration and detector of contemporary conflicts.
Venice has always been synonymous with innovation.
As for the film that will kick off the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, it’s “La La Land” by Damien Chazelle with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, as well as two documentaries, Terrence Malick’s “Voyage of Time” and “Spira Mirabilis” by Italian directing duo Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti.
Meanwhile, among the futurist genres there will be 3D films “Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez” by Wim Wenders and a UFO story “Arrival” by Denis Villeneuve, another big risk taken by the festival’s art director Barbera.
Another unmissable film will be the TV series episodes of “The Young Pope” by the Italian Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino with a stellar cast starring Jude Law, Diane Keaton and Cecile de France. Italy will have several films in competition, such as “Piuma” (Feather) and “Questi Giorni” (These Days). The younger generations will be the protagonists of contemporary stories about the difficulties of growing up.
The “European” surprise could come from “Brimstone,” a western thriller film conceived, written and directed by the Dutch film-maker Martin Koolhoven and starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Kit Harington and Carice van Houten. It is a triumphant tale of powerful womanhood and resistance against a violent past that refuses to fade. Just like at the Cannes this year, the red carpet in Venice is expected, for the joy of paparazzi and fans, to be one of the best ever, with a stunning Natalie Portman together with Emma Stone, Alicia Vikander and the Italian star Monica Bellucci.
Just as impressive will be the “battalion” of male stars such as Jude Law, Mel Gibson, Michael Fassbender, James Franco, Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.
As for the international jury that will be awarding the golden lions, its president will be British director Sam Mendes. Also on the jury will be American artist, singer, director and writer Laurie Anderson, British actress Gemma Arterton, Italian magistrate, writer, playwright and screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo, German actress Nina Hoss, French actress Chiara Mastroianni, American director Joshua Oppenheimer, Venezuelan Golden Lion director Lorenzo Vigas and the Chinese actress, director and singer Zhao Wei.
The Venice International Film Festival runs August 30 through September 10th, 2016. For more information on ticketing click here.
Zero Days, the latest film by acclaimed documentarian, Alex Gibney, details claims that the US and Israeli governments conducted covert cyber warfare operations against the Iranian government and the Iranians’ nuclear enrichment program. Zero Days, a fitting Opening Night Film for AFI DOCS, served as a catalyst for conversation in the Q & A immediately followed its screening at the Newseum in Washington D.C.
AFI President & CEO Bob Gazzale introduced the film and commented on the importance of Director Gibney’s work in line with “dreams for a better world. Dreams that demand debate!” In addition, Gazzele stated how honored he was to be partnering with this year’s presenting sponsor AT & T. AT & T spokesperson, Jennifer Coons, took stage and expressed what a privilege it was for AT & T to bring together politics, business and investment to learn from one another while connecting people.
Zero Days opened with a 2010 clip from an Iranian television station with the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vehemently denouncing Western and Zionist regimes interference in the Iranian nuclear enrichment program. Throughout the film, Gibney intersperses narrative voice overs and archival footage as the spokespersons for the US government repeatedly delivered “I can’t comment” when asked about the existence of a cyber warfare super virus, soon to be revealed as Stuxnet. Two malware, computer programming specialists from internet security behemoths Symantec and Kaspersky, uncover Stuxnet and both reach a professional conclusion after engaging in deep analytic data processing that the virus they are uncovering is more than just the work of an at-large hacker. The sophistication and the virus’ ability to replicate itself without a user doing anything and its ability to mutate undetected is known in malware jargon as ‘zero-day exploitation’ without any protection against it and was undoubtedly the work of a nation-state. The effect the virus had on the Iranian infrastructure as it attacked power plants, energy grids, gas pipelines and industrial sites resulted in deaths and severe repercussions for scientists and line operators alike. The Symantec and Kaspersky experts estimated 500,000 attacks were unleashed over the course of its deployment.
A former employee of the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency went on camera to say that he knew of one or two nation-states that were using cyber weapons for offensive purposes. However, when asked who the states were and were the states involved using Stuxnet, a dance of denial ensued with the former employee back peddling while reiterating he did not mention names of the existence of Stuxnet often uttering “I can’t comment on that.”
In Zero Days Gibney has upped the ante from previous works with heightened production values utilizing CGI and textual overlays to convey the genesis of a new era and a medium of espionage at the highest governmental levels and has done his homework as he provides a historical backdrop of the Iranian nuclear program disclosing the US gave Iran its first nuclear reactor under the Shah of Iran’s rule. In addition, he shows the pride the Iranian people have in their nuclear program demonstrated by their national celebrations for Nuclear Enrichment Day, a national nuclear day that has galvanized the republic of Iran. Throughout the remainder of Zero Days Gibney delves deeply into Homeland Security and the arsenal of the US Cyber Command apparatus with probing interviews and expose investigative reporting concluding with speculation on where this new game of global cyber warfare may lead.
Zero Days is one of this year’s most important films in light of recent accusations a foreign power hacked the Democratic National Committee’s computer system as well as Democratic Presidential Nominee, Hillary Clinton’s campaign system. New York Times columnist David E. Sanger reports on this in the July 30th edition with his article “U.S. Wrestles With How to Fight Back Against Cyberattacks.”
The selection is complete for the members of the three international Juries (Venezia 73, Orizzonti, “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for Best Debut Film) of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival (31 August-10 September 2016), directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.
Venezia 73
The personalities convened as members of the Jury for the Venezia 73 Competition, in addition to the president, director Sam Mendes, are:
American artist, singer, director and writer Laurie Anderson, one of the most important and courageous exponents of the creative avant-garde in America today. She is renowned for her vocal and multimedia performances, which cross-pollinate art, theatre and experimental music. In 2015 she directed Heart of a Dog, screenedin Competition in Venice, which won unanimous critical acclaim around the world.
British actress Gemma Arterton moved into the limelight in 2008 when she appeared as a Bond Girl in the film Quantum of Solace by Marc Forster. In 2009 she won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer. The star of Tamara Drewe (2010) by Stephen Frears and of Byzantium (2012) by Neil Jordan, she has also appeared in major productions such as Prince of Persia (2010) by Mike Newell.
the Italian magistrate, writer, playwright and screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo,author of the best-selling novel Romanzo criminale (2002) which inspired the film by Michele Placido (2005) and the television series by Stefano Sollima (2008). He is a two-time winner of the David di Donatello for the screenplays of Romanzo criminale, and of Noi credevamo (2010) by Mario Martone (which also won a Nastro d’argento for the screenplay).
German actress Nina Hoss, who works in both film and the theatre, won the Silver Bear as Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007 with Yella (2007) by Christian Petzold, a director with whom she has worked many times: in Jerichow (2008), screened in Competition in Venice, and in the recent Phoenix (2014), a performance for which she won many important international awards.
French actress Chiara Mastroianni, a famous star of European auteur films, who acted alongside her mother Catherine Deneuve at a very young age in Ma maison préférée by André Téchiné (1993, nominated at the César awards for Most Promising Actress). In 2010 she won the Excellence Award at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2014 she participated in the Venice International Film Festival with two films in Competition, Trois Coeurs by Benoît Jacquot and La Rançon de la gloire by Xavier Beauvois.
American director Joshua Oppenheimer, who attracted international attention with his two documentaries, both nominated for an Oscar, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), the latter in Competition at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Since then, the film has won 70 awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.
Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas, who won the Golden Lion for Best Film at last year’s Venice International Film Festival with his debut film Desde allà, the first Latin-American director to win the most important prize on the Lido. The film was later screened at many international festivals and won many awards.
Chinese actress, director and singer Zhao Wei, who rose to international fame in the films of Stephen Chow, Ann Hui, He Ping, John Woo and Johnnie To. For her role in Dearest (2014) by Peter Chan, screened Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival, she won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2013 she made her debut as a director with So Young, the highest-grossing film ever in China for a female director.
The Jury will award the following official prizes to the feature films in Competition:
Golden Lion for Best Film; Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize; Silver Lion for Best Director; Coppa Volpi for Best Actor; Coppa Volpi for Best Actress; “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress; Award for Best Screenplay; and the SpecialJury Prize.
Orizzonti
The members of the international Jury of the Orizzonti section, in addition to its president, French director Robert Guédiguian, are:
American film critic and historian Jim Hoberman, long the “senior critic” of the “Village Voice” in New York, who writes a column in “The New York Times”, and is one of the most influential voices in international film criticism. A teacher and exhibition curator, he has been a member of international juries and of the selection committee for the New York Film Festival. He has written thirteen books on cinema.
Egyptian actress Nelly Karim, who won the Best Actress Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2004 for My Soulmate by Khaled Youssef. In 2012, her performance in Cairo 678 by Mohamed Diab, won her the Best Actress Award at the Arab Film Festival. She took part in the penultimate film by Youssef Chahine, Alexandria…New York (2004). Nelly Karim was the main actress of Clash (2016) by Mohamed Diab, which was in Cannes in Official Competition in Un Certain Regard.
Italian actress Valentina Lodovini, one of the most important actresses in Italian cinema in recent years, starting with her role as the star of La giusta distanza (2007) by Carlo Mazzacurati. Winner of the David di Donatello in 2010 for Benvenuti al Sud by Luca Miniero, in 2011 she starred in Cosedell’altro mondo by Francesco Patierno, presented at the Venice Film Festival.
The Korean actress and director Moon So-ri has set a milestone in Korean film history with her passionate acting in Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis which earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Actress at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, for the first time as a Korean actress.
Spanish film critic and scholar José Maria (Chema) Prado, the long-standing director (since 1989) of the Filmoteca Española in Madrid. He has been a member of the jury at many international film festivals, including Cannes and Locarno, and has collaborated with the San Sebastian Festival. In 2015 he won the Premio Fénix por la Contribución a la Cultura Cinematográfica de Iberoamérica.
Indian director Chaitanya Tamhane, whose debut feature film, Court (2014), premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won the Lion of the Future award and the Orizzonti award for Best film. Since then, the film has gone on to win 32 international awards, and it was India’s official entry to the Oscars. He has recently been selected for the Rolex Mentor-Protégé Arts Initiative under the mentorship of Alfonso Cuarón.
The Jury will award the following prizes, with no ex-aequo awards permitted:
Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Orizzonti Award for Best Director; Special Orizzonti Jury Prize; Orizzonti Award for Best Actor or Actress; Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay; Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film; Venice Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2016.
“Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future
The members of the international Jury ofthe “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future, in addition to its president, Italian actor Kim Rossi Stuart, are:
Spanish producer Rosa Bosch, former Deputy Director of the London Film Festival/National Film Theatre. As a producer, she has worked with directors such as Wim Wenders, Guillermo Del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, and Gus Van Sant. In 2003 she became co-managing director of HBO Films in London. She now runs the Havana-based production company CubanStar, which has recently worked for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, House of Lies, Vanity Fair/Annie Leibovitz, and Chanel.
American actor and director Brady Corbet won the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and the Orizzonti Award for Best Director. Previously he had been one of America’s most interesting young actors, as the star, among others, of Mysterious Skin (2004) by Gregg Araki, presented at the Venice Film Festival.
Spanish actress Pilar López de Ayala, one of the most highly considered and beloved Iberian stars, won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Goya Prize for her performance as Queen Juana de Castilla in Mad Love (2001) by Vicente Aranda. She was the star of The Strange Case of Angelica (2010) by Manoel de Oliveira, presented in the Un certain regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.
French film critic Serge Toubiana, one of the most important film scholars of his generation, critic for Cahiers du cinéma from 1974 to 2000 (and its director for many years), director of the Cinémathèque Française from 2003 through January 2016. He is the author of many books and documentaries. With Kent Jones, he co-authored the documentary Hitchcock Truffaut (2015).
The Jury will award, with no ex-aequo awards permitted, the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film to one of the debut feature-length films selected from the various competition sections of the Venice Film Festival (Official Selection and Independent and Parallel Sidebars). It comes with a cash prize of 100,000 USD donated by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi De Laurentiis, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.
Biographies
Venezia73
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring- creative pioneers. As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist she has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, and experimental music. In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA which culminated in her 2004 touring solo performance The End of the Moon. In 2007 she received the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her outstanding contribution to the arts. In 2011 her exhibition of all new work titled Forty-Nine Days In the Bardo opened at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. That same year she was awarded with the Pratt Institute’s Honorary Legends Award. She has recently finished residencies at both CAP in UCLA in Los Angeles and EMPAC in Troy New York. In 2015 her film Heart of a Dog was chosen in Competition at the 2015 Venice and as an official selection of theToronto Film Festivals and her exhibition Habeas Corpus opened at the Park Avenue Armory to wide critical acclaim. Anderson lives in New York City.
Gemma Arterton
Beautiful English actress Gemma Arterton is well known for her stage and screen presence. After gaining an award for Best Supporting Actress for Kent, she gained a full scholarship to RADA where she took lead roles in productions such as An Ideal Husband, Titus Andronicus and The Beggar’s Opera. In 2008, Gemma starred as iconic Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace, directed by Marc Forster. Her other film credits include Guy Ritchie’s gangster film RocknRolla. In 2010 she played the lead female role in Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time directed by Mike Newell. In 2012 she starred in the title role in Tamara Drewe directed by award-winning director Stephen Frears. In 2013, Gemma starred in four feature films; Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters by Tommy Wirkola, Song for Marion by Paul Andrew Williams, in Neil Jordan’s Byzantium and in the Brad Furman thriller Runner, Runner. September 2014 saw Gemma play the title lead in Gemma Bovery directed by Anne Fontaine and starring Fabrice Luchini. The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival.
Giancarlo De Cataldo
Giancarlo De Cataldo was born in Taranto but has lived in Rome since 1978, where he is a Judge for the Court of Assizes of Appeal. He is a writer, translator, playwright and screenwriter. He writes for the daily newspaper Repubblica and Espresso newsmagazine. His works include Romanzo criminale (Einaudi, Stile Libero, 2002) which inspired a film directed by Michele Placido and two television series for Sky directed by Stefano Sollima; Cocaina (Einaudi Stilelibero 2013, with Carlo Lucarelli and Gianrico Carofiglio) and Suburra (Einaudi, Stilelibero, 2013), written with Carlo Bonini, and adapted by Stefano Sollima for the eponymous film. His novels have been translated into French, Spanish, German, English, Dutch. With Mario Marton, he wrote the screenplay for Noi credevamo, presented in Competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2010. He won the David di Donatello for Best Screenplay twice (Romanzo Criminale and Noi credevamo), and the Nastro d’argento for Best Screenplay (Noi credevamo).
Nina Hoss
Known for her extensive career in both theatre and film, Nina Hoss won the Silver Bear at the 2007 Berlinale for her performance in Christian Petzold’s Yella and returned to the festival in 2011 as one of their jurors. A year later she collaborated with Petzold again in the multi-award winning film Barbara, a role for which she received international acclaim. In 2014 she returned to Schaubuehne Berlin where she worked with Thomas Ostermeier and was on screen in Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, for which she was rewarded the Golden Space Needle as best actress at Seattle International Film Festival in 2015 and as well the Toronto film critics award in the same category. Recently she played in the US hit series Homeland. This year she worked under Volker Schlöndorff with Stellan Skarsgard in Return to Montauk. Nina Hoss lives in Berlin.
Chiara Mastroianni
Chiara Mastroianni is a French actress born in Paris in 1972. She was offered her first role in 1993 by André Techine in Ma saison préférée (a film that won her a nomination for a César award as Most Promising Actress. She then worked with Arnaud Desplechin in Comment je me suis disputé (ma vie sexuelle), followed by Xavier Beauvois in N’oublie pas que tu vas mourir (winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival), Raoul Ruiz in Trois vies et une seule mort (selected for the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1996), Robert Altman in Prêt-à-porter”, Laetitia Masson in “À vendre, and Nowhere by Gregg Araki. She worked again with Raoul Ruiz in Le temps retrouvé (selected for the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival), Manoel de Oliveira in La Lettre (a modern adaptation of La princesse de Clèves, and winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998); with Francesca Comencini in Zeno: Le parole di mio padre (selected for the Un certain regard section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001), Delphine Gleize in Carnages (selected for the Un certain regard section at the Cannes Film Festival); with Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi in Il est plus facile pour un chameau. In 2007, she worked with Arnaud Desplechin again in Un conte de Noël, selected for the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival; with Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis which won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2007 and the César award for Best First Feature Film; with Christophe Honoré in Les chansons d’amour (selected for the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival), in Non ma fille tu n’iras pas danser (nominated for the César award for Best Actress, and for the Globe de crystal) and in Bien-Aimés, presented in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. In 2013, Chiara starred in Les salauds directed by Claire Denis, ( in the “un certain regard” section at Cannes) and in 2013 in Trois coeurs by Benoit Jacquot (presented in Competition at the Venice International Film Festival). She is currently starring in Good luck Algeria.
Joshua Oppenheimer
Born in 1974, USA, his debut feature film, The Act of Killing (2014 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary), was named Film of the Year in the 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and won 72 international awards, including a European Film Award, a BAFTA, an Asia Pacific Screen Award, a Berlinale Audience Award. His second film, The Look of Silence (2016 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary), premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won five awards, including the Grand Jury Prize, the international critics award (FIPRESCI Prize) and the European film critics award (FEDEORA Prize). Since then, The Look of Silence has received 70 international awards, including an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, an International Documentary Association Award for Best Documentary. In 2015, Joshua Oppenheimer received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Lorenzo Vigas
In 2015, the Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas, became the first Latin-American to receive the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, for his directorial debut Desde allá (From Afar). After graduating in biology in 1994, and while doing a master in molecular biology, he decided to move to New York and enroll in filmmaking workshops at New York University. Subsequently, he worked in Caracas directing the documentary TV series Expedición, produced by RCTV, and also directing institutional documentaries for the production company Cinesa. In 2004, he premiered at Cannes’s International Critics Week, his short film Los Elefantes Nunca Olvidan (Elephants never forget), the first part of the trilogy that delves into the father figure in Latin America. Currently, he is working in the last part of the trilogy, the feature film La caja, to be filmed in Mexico during 2017.
Zhao Wei
One of Asia’s most coveted actresses, director and singer, Zhao Wei burst into international limelight with Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer (2001), He Ping’s Warriors of Heaven and Heart (2004), John Woo’s Red Clift (2009) and Johnnie To’s Three (2016). She has also worked with filmmakers like Ann Hui, Zhang Yuan, Doze Niu and Wu’ersan. Her performance in Peter Chan’s Dearest (2014)- shown out of competition at 71st Venice Film Festival – won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015. In 2013, Zhao released her directorial debut So Young was a critical hit and commercial success. It set the record of the highest grossing film by a female director in China. She recently finished primary shooting for her second directorial feature.
Orizzonti
Jim Hoberman
J. Hoberman is a New York City-based author and cultural critic. He began reviewing films for The Village Voice in 1978, initially specializing in avant-garde cinema, and continued for 33 years, succeeding Andrew Sarris as senior film critic in 1988. Since leaving the Voice, Hoberman has written on art and cinema for Artforum, The New York Review of Books, and Film Comment, among other publications; he also has a regular column in The New York Times. He has lectured widely, and taught cinema history at the Cooper Union in New York, where he was the Gelb Professor of Humanities, as well as courses in cinema studies at New York University, Harvard University and Columbia University. He has served on juries at the Berlin, Jerusalem, Naples, and Rotterdam film festivals, as well as the selection committee for the New York Film Festival. Several of his essays were anthologized in the Library of America collection, American Movie Critics.
Nelly Karim
Born in Alexandria, from an Egyptian father and a Russian mother, Nelly Karim started out as a ballet dancer, trained at the Academy of Arts in Cairo, before she became a model and an actress. She has played in about 25 films and television series, including Youssef Chahine’s second to last film, Alexandria…New York (2004). She was awarded the Best My soulmate Actress prize at the Cairo International Film Festival for Khaled Youssef’s. She was one of the heroines in Mohamed Diab’s Cairo 678 (2012), and together with her partners on screen Bushra and Hajed El Sebai, she won the Jury Grand Prize at the 2011 Asian Pacific Screen Awards. For her role in Cairo 678 she has also received the Award for best actress at Arab Film Festival in 2012. Nelly Karim was the main actress of Clash (2016) by Mohamed Diab, which was in Cannes in Official Competition in Un Certain Regard.
Valentina Lodovini
Valentina Lodovini is an Italian actress. A student of Nicolaj Karpov, she earned her diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and made her debut as an actress in 2006 in the film The Family Friend (L’Amico di famiglia) by Paolo Sorrentino. She has worked with Italian directors such as Carlo Mazzucurati, Francesca Comencini, Daniele Vicari and Marco Risi. Her commitment to independent cinema took her to the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 with the film Good Morning Heartache (Riprendimi); she also worked beside Shirley MacLaine and Malcolm McDowell in the television production Coco Chanel by Christian Duguay. In 2010 she starred in the comedy box-office hit Benvenuti al Sud and won the David di Donatello for her performance. In 2008 she won the Guglielmo Biraghi prize for her performance in the film The Right Distance (La giusta distanza).She participated in the Venice International Film Festival in 2011 in the Controcampo Italiano section as the star of the film Things from Another World (Cose dell’altro mondo) by Francesco Patierno.
Moon So-ri
Moon So-ri is a representative actress in the Korea’s movie circles. After debuted in Lee Chang-dong’s acclaimed movie Peppermint Candy in 1999, Moon has set a milestone in the Korean film history with her passionate acting in Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis which earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Actor or Actress at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, for the first time as a Korean actress. Moon has been described as a towering presence in the domestic film domain which received such praises as ‘Not a single work of Moon has disappointed the public and critics.’ In addition to building an impressive filmography as an actress, Moon has turned into a movie director, actively pursuing her career in various areas of the film world.
Josè Maria (Chema) Prado
After earning his degree in interior architecture, and collaborating with specialized film magazines, he began to work for the Filmoteca Española as director of programming through 1987, the year in which he was appointed Deputy Director. In 1989 he was appointed Director of the Filmoteca, a position he would hold through 2016. From 1993 to 1999, he was a member of the executive committee of the International Federation of Film Archives. He was a consultant to the San Sebastian Film Festival, and has been a member of the jury in many film festivals, including Cannes, Sundance, Valladolid, Locarno, Los Angeles, Montpellier, Guadalajara, La Havana, Miami and Venice. He was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic in 1995, Gold Medalist of the Accademia Gallega dell’Audiovisivo in 2004, and was honoured with a medal for Civil Merit in 2011. Since 1993 he has dedicated himself to artistic photography, and regularly exhibits his work.
Chaitanya Tamhane
Born in Mumbai in 1987, Chaitanya Tamhane is an English literature graduate from Mithibai College of Arts. Six Strands (2010), his first fictional short film was screened at various international film festivals including Rotterdam International Film Festival, Clermont- Ferrand International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Slamdance, and many others. Chaitanya’s debut feature film, Court (2014), premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won the Lion of the Future award and the Orizzonti award for Best film. Since then, the film has gone on to win 32 international awards at various prestigious film festivals as well as India’s National Award for Best Feature Film. It was India’s official entry to the Oscars. In 2016, Chaitanya was featured in Forbes Asia’s list of 300 young achievers under the age of 30. He has recently been selected for the Rolex Mentor-Protégé Arts Initiative under the mentorship of Alfonso Cuarón.
“Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future
Rosa Bosch
Deputy Director of the London Film Festival/National Film Theatre where she remained for 10 years, Rosa moved to the industry side as co-founder of the Mexican company Tequila Gang. During this time she was involved with Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders, El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone) by Guillermo del Toro, Lost in la Mancha by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, and Amores Perros by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. In 2003, she established and was Co-Managing Director of HBO Films in London, where she handled Elephant (double winner of the Palme d’Or and Best Director at Cannes) amongst others. Rosa is a member of the European Film Academy and BAFTA. She now runs the Havana-based production company CubanStar which develops new content and provides film services on the island, recently for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, House of Lies, Vanity Fair/Annie Leibovitz and Chanel.
Brady Corbet
Writer/Director/Actor Brady Corbet began his career at age eleven, acting in acclaimed films such as Thirteen (2003), Mysterious Skin (2004), Funny Games (2007), Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Simon Killer (2012), Clouds Of Sils Maria (2014), and Melancholia (2011). Corbet’s television acting credits include 24, Law & Order and The King of Queens. He presented his writing and directorial debut, the short film Protect Me and You at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. The film was shot by legendary cinematographer Darius Khondji, and recognized for “Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking.” In 2015, Corbet made his feature directorial debut with the visionary film The Childhood of a Leader, which was lauded at the Venice Film Festival with the Orizzonti Best Director and Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future awards. He currently resides in New York City.
Pilar López de Ayala
One of the most valued and loved Spanish actresses, Pilar has participated in films that have enjoyed recognition in important film festivals with some of the most renowned independent directors on the international scene, such as José Luis Guerín (In the City of Sylvia), Golden Lion Nominated Venice Film Festival; Manoel de Oliveira (The Strange case of Angelica) Nominated Un Certain Regard Cannes Film Festival, and for which the Cahiers du Cinéma France valued Pilar´s role as one of the top ones of that year; or Raya Martin (Buenas Noches, España). Mad Love, by Vicente Aranda, led her to win the Silver Shell of San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Goya Award for Best Leading Actress for her performance as Queen Joanna of Castile. She has repeatedly been Goya Award nominated but has also earned numerous international awards, as the New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Supporting Actress in Obaba (Montxo Armendáriz), French Raimu de la Comédie Award New Actress in Comme les Autres (Vincent Garenq), or Best Actress Award Toulouse Film Festival in Hand in Globe (Josetxo San Mateo). Her recent works include Night Has Settled (Steve Clark), Jury Prize and Festival Prize Award Winner at the International Soho Film Festival.
Serge Toubiana
Born in Sousse in Tunisia in 1949, Serge Toubiana was a critic for the Cahiers du Cinema from 1974 to 2000, during which the magazine reached the height of its circulation. From 1993 to 1995 he was a General Delegate for the Premier siècle du cinéma association, the purpose of which was to organize the Centennial of the birth of Cinema in France. From 2003 to 2016 he was director of the Cinémathèque française, and from 2014 to 2015 he was president of the Commission d’avance sur recettes at the Centre National du Cinéma. He is the author and co-author of many books on the history of cinema and on illustrious exponents of French cinema and others. His many works include the documentary François Truffaut, Portraits volés (with Michel Pascal, 1993), the biography François Truffaut (Gallimard, 1996, with Antoine de Baecque), Amos Gitai, exils et territoires (Cahiers du Cinéma, 1999), Isabelle Huppert, Une vie pour jouer (MK2 TV/Arte, 2001), the series of 10 documentaries Chaplin aujourd’hui (MK2 TV, 2003).
