Natalie Portman’s directorial debut opens Corto Cortissimo

Monday September 1st will see Natalie Portman cutting the ribbon for the Corto Cortissimo section, the international competition of Short Films at the 65th Venice Film Festival.
Eve, the directorial debut by the young American actress (Queen Padmé Amidala in Star Wars, and star of films including Léon, Closer, V for Vendetta, The Darjeeling Limited), will open - out of competition - the first of three programmes of the line-up curated by Stefano Martina, in cooperation with Giuliana La Volpe. Featuring two icons of American cinema in the shape of Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara, who have lent their gloriously-lined features and talent to a civilised comedy on the third age fuelled by amorous dalliances, Portman’s film is, however, just the first of many American productions selected this year. Among these is The Butcher’s Shop, a melange of cinema and video-art and a refined rereading of a famous canvas by the 14th century painter Annibale Carracci, directed by the veteran Philip Haas (Up at the Villa, Angels and Insects), the Kammerspiel co-directed by the Italians Giacomo Gatti and Francesco Carrozzini 1937, entirely set in the notorious Chelsea Hotel in New York, and - as the closing film, also out of competition - Jarred by Martin Gaiss.

International ‘Venezia 65′ Jury

The following jurors have been nominated to join president Wim Wenders on the International Jury for the Competition of the 65th Venice Film Festival (August 27 – September 6 2008), directed by Marco Müller and organized by the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.
They are Russian screenwriter Juriy Arabov, a significant voice in contemporary Russian cinema; Italian actress Valeria Golino, the winner of the Coppa Volpi in Venice at the early age of twenty, and one of the most beloved Italian actresses abroad; British visual artist Douglas Gordon, internationally renowned and acknowledged by major artistic institutions throughout the world; American cult filmmaker John Landis, who experiments in virtually every film genre with a scathing, satirical point of view; young director Lucrecia Martel, the most significant female voice in New Argentine Cinema; and Hong Kong director Johnnie To, representing the best contemporary Asian cinema and who has featured prominently in the recent history of the Venice Film Festival.

BURN AFTER READING OPEN THE 65th VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
Burn After Reading, written and directed by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, will open the 65th Venice Film Festival at Lido di Venezia, to be held from 27th August to 6th September 2008, directed by Marco Müller and organised by La Biennale di Venezia.
The film, starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and Brad Pitt, will be given its world premiere on the evening of 27th August in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema, following the opening ceremony of the 65th Festival.
In the dark spy-comedy, Mr. Malkovich plays an ousted CIA official whose memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two unwise Washington, D.C. gym employees intent on exploiting their find. The director of photography on Burn After Reading is Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men). Mary Zophres is the costume designer, marking her eighth consecutive feature with the Coens. Jess Gonchor, production designer on No Country for Old Men, encores in that capacity on Burn After Reading.

WIM WENDERS PRESIDENT OF JURY

The president of the International Jury for the Competition of the 65th Venice Film Festival (27th of August to 6th September 2008), will be one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, the German director Wim Wenders, who has formed close ties with the Festival over the years.

Indeed, Wenders appeared at the Lido already in 1972 with his first feature, The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter), and won the Golden Lion 10 years later with The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge), the first in a series of important awards that have led him to the forefront of international cinema.

The director’s output has coincided frequently with the Venice Film Festival during recent decades. In 1989, he presented Lightning over Water in the Mezzogiorno-Mezzanotte section; in 1985, he presented Docu Drama at the International Critics’ Week; in 1994, his Arisha, the Bear and the Stone Ring (Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring) appeared in the Finestra sulle Immagini section; in 1995, Beyond the Clouds, co-directed with Michelangelo Antonioni, was presented out of competition and won the Fipresci award; in 1996, a work for television was presented in the Finestra sulle Immagini section entitled The Skladanowsky Brothers (Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky); and in 2004, the director returned to the competition with Land of Plenty.