“Atonement” by Joe Wright to be the opening film of the 64th Venice Film Festival  
 
Atonement -directed by Joe Wright, starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave- will open the 64th Venice Film Festival, to be held at the Lido di Venezia from 29th August to 8th September 2007, directed for the fourth time by Marco Müller and organised by the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Davide Croff. Produced by co-chairmen of Working Title Films Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster, the screenplay is by Christopher Hampton adapted from the bestselling novel by Ian McEwan.  The film will be presented in competition with a world premiere on the evening of 29th August in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema.

The decision to open the 64th edition with Atonement, the second film directed by Joe Wright (his first being Pride & Prejudice), confirms the pioneering vocation of the Venice Film Festival and its ability to work as a true “talent scout” festival. Intercepting the most innovative developments in the film world as and when they happen, and revealing the new trends and currents in contemporary cinema, the Festival discovers and presents the protagonists of cinema of the future. Atonement will be released in UK on 14th September, in the US on 7th December and in Italy on 21st September.  Universal Pictures International distributes the film internationally.

The director of the 64th Venice Film Festival, Marco Müller, has declared: “In the year of its 75th anniversary, the

64th Venice Film Festival

August 29th to September 8th, 2007

Bernardo Bertolucci has been awarded the 75th anniversary Golden Lion, the special award set up this year to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival (1932-2007). The 75th anniversary Golden Lion will be awarded to the director during the evening of the awards ceremony, on September 8th.
As part of the celebrations for Bertolucci, the barely shown but major documentary, La via del petrolio (1966), will be screened, in the version restored by the Cineteca Nazionale and ENI, along with the masterpiece Bertolucci presented at the Festival in 1970, The Spider’s Stratagem, in the newly restored version by the Cineteca Nazionale.

“Bernardo Bertolucci began his exceptional career over 40 years ago in Venice”, declared the Biennale’s President, Davide Croff, “and we are proud that he should have accepted this unique award, linked to the history of the Festival. Bertolucci is a great Italian director, who has had the courage to give a cosmopolitan dimension to his personal inspiration, combining industry requirements with a boundless love for cinema. For this reason, he embodies various aspects and characteristics of the Venice Festival in en emblematic manner, and is thus the ideal candidate for the 75th anniversary Golden Lion.

by the Biennale site

29th August – 8th September Venice Lido

The Venice Film Festival celebrates its Jubilee (1932-2007). Founded on 6th August 1932 at Venice Lido, the oldest film festival in the world celebrates its 75th anniversary this year during the 64th edition of the Festival which will be held at Venice Lido from 29th August to 8th September 2007, directed for the fourth time by Marco Muller and organised by the Biennale of Venice chaired by Davide Croff.
The 50th anniversary in 1982 saw an international Jury composed entirely of film directors (women and men), and the same formula has been adopted for the 75th anniversary of the 64th Venice Film Festival. Invited to chair it is the film-maker who, in the whole history of the Festival, has won most major awards, making, thus, a place for himself among the protagonists of world-wide cinema: the Chinese director Zhang Yimou – winner of two Golden Lions, in 1992 with The story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si) and in 1999 with Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao), one Silver Lion in 1991 with Raise the Red Lantern (Da hong deng long gao gao gua) and one Coppa Volpi for the best female actress (Gong Li, in 1992, for The Story of Qiu Ju).
Two great figures from American cinema, producer Bill Mechanic and director Gregg Araki, have been selected as presidents of other two international juries of the 64th Venice Film Festival, respectively for

St.Mark’s Basin
The Feast of ‘Redentore’, one of the most ancient popular Venetian feasts, is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of July: it is the most appreciated and felt by the Venetians who, following a rite which has been repeated for four hundred years, meet in St.Mark’s basin in order to wait for and admire the midnight fireworks.
Though more than four centuries have passed from its consecration, the Feast of Redentore keeps on taking place on the same places and according to the same modalities; still nowadays, in fact, the town is linked to Giudecca by means of a bridge supported by modern floating platforms. The characteristic of popular feast has remained intact: the Venetians are the real protagonists of this feast together with their boats which are exquisitely adorned, the roof-terraces and the squares lit by thousands of lights.

Tim Burton Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

The American director Tim Burton, will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 64th Venice International Film Festival (29th August - 8th September 2007). The Golden Lion pays homage again to one of the most courageous, visionary and innovative American filmmakers who have been able to move and fascinate the widest and broadest audience, and to be always suspended between art and industry.  Mr. Burton’s Golden Lion was proposed by Festival Director, Marco Müller, and approved by the Board of Directors of Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Davide Croff. The previous recipient of the honor was David Lynch in 2006.

The award will be presented to the director on Wednesday 5th September, during a special “Tim Burton Day” (with a series of surprise offerings) at the next Venice Film Festival set to take place in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema.

Tim Burton had chosen the Venice Film Festival to present his two animated masterpieces, The Nightmare Before Christmas (given its international premiere at the 1994 Festival) and Corpse Bride (given its world premiere at the 2005 Festival).

Across twelve full-length feature films in 23 years, Tim Burton has demonstrated astounding versatility without ever sacrificing the thematic and stylistic unity of his work. Burton’s movies veer from enchantment to melancholy, often within the same frame, and his fantasy-scapes can mix Gothic horror and oddball comedy. Though he works in and around Hollywood, his films often fall outside the contemporary paradigm of American cinema.

Through the box-office successes and artistic achievements of Batman, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Burton’s consistently outstanding work has been defined by a unique, personal stamp that marks him as one of contemporary cinema’s true visionaries. He is currently in production on his big screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd, a co-production of Warner Bros. Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen and Christopher Lee.