66.International Film Festival
2-12 september, 2009
Venice Lido

Everybody is looking forward to the opening of the 66th International Film Festival, which, this year, has got Italian films as protagonists, with the screening of Monicelli’s restored masterpiece ‘The great War’, during the pre-opening, and Tornatore’s Baaria, during the opening, as well as Pixar’s animation film with the Career Award which will be given to John Lasseter, namely the creator of Toy Story and many other successful feature films.

Ang Lee, who has been awarded many times and who has stockpiled Golden Lions in Venice in the past, will be the new President of the Jury and in a short time we will know the names of the other jurors too.

The film director from Ethiopia (who has got American origins too) Haile Gerima – main figure of African films and chief founder of the independent Afro-American one – and the main director of the independent Spanish films Pere Portabella – who is the author of the extraordinary ‘The Silence before Bach’ (Die Stille vor Bach), which was screened in Venice in 2007 and has become one of the most  successful films in the European Essai circuit – will be at the International Film Festival in Venice 2009 as Presidents of the International Juries respectively for the Premio Venezia Opera Prima (Haile Gerima), and for the Orizzonti section (Pere Portabella).

Another great news for such 2009 edition will be the fact that ‘Variety’ – that is the most famous film paper in the world, namely the ‘Bible of shobiz’ which was founded in 1905 – will put in writing, together with ‘Venezia News’ for the pages in Italian language, the official daily of the 66th International Film Festival. The bilingual daily of the 66th Festival, in order to satisfy, every day, the Festival lovers, will be written, for the English section, by Variety, with special reports and thorough examinations of the Venice Festival as well as the international film concern. For the Italian section the daily will be written by ‘Venezia news’ which will deal with the screenings of films, interviews, specific contents and curiosities, in order to enjoy thoroughly the Festival and Lido.

Some news from the logistic point of view too. The project for the restoration of the buildings for the Festival, with the elevation of a new Film Palace which will be ready in 2011, has already started this year. In the area in front of the Palazzo del Casinò a new Hall with 450 seats, namely Sala Perla Nera, will be arranged in order to give more room to the Festival programme for the screening of the films of the International Week of Critics (SIC) and the Authors’ days. The 66th Festival, then, will have a new main entrance for the public and operators on the dock side of the Palazzo del Casinò.