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.