75 years of film in Venice:

great history for a solid future  

The Venice International Film Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary at a time when film and cinema are once again at the centre of a cultural and political debate in Italy.

Important legal issues are being discussed and laws are being approved. Film specialists, intellectuals and journalists are involved in a massive re-think regarding intense, ethical issues which concern the interweave of film, culture and society.

With this in mind, the Biennale is all the more aware of the important role the Venice Film Festival has in the “cinema system” both in Italy and worldwide, especially regarding its historical role in the search for and promotion of all things new.

During the four years now drawing to a close with Marco Müller as Director of the Festival, the Foundation that I preside has constantly and coherently striven towards finding the firm responses that high expectations require. Three main principles have served as guidelines: the respect for tradition; commitment to the present; quality planning for the future.

Hence, with this jubilee, we commemorate the great, unique history of this vibrant Festival by marking the celebration of its 75th anniversary with a special Golden Lion Award to Bernardo Bertolucci, and the important events Alexandre Kluge has prepared for us: both cinematographers and intellectuals who have marked the history of cinema and the Biennale and who are, above all, maestros of the present.

The Festival also remembers one great filmmaker of world renown, Michelangelo Antonioni, recently died, whose indisputable masterpieces are protagonists on the Lido.

Much has changed with regard to the Festivals of the last four years. Despite the obvious logistics and structural problems, the general slim-lining of resources and changes in audience-type, the Foundation has continued to forge ahead. It has significantly improved its functionality by improving routes and pathways and by giving more visibility to each film presented and director invited. The Festival is now far better organised, better loved and all the more important at an international level. Obvious proof of this are the 51 Oscar nominations received by films presented at Venice in the last three years, as well as the numerous awards which have helped promote, both artistically and commercially, a large number of debut films and others from remote areas and less well-known cinematographies. Our prestige has increased thanks to our permanent relationships, the consolidation of both management and staff, and programming and planning as a whole. Added to research and experimentation, these are the only elements which can give sizeable, lasting results in the medium to long term. The quality of the events presented in this catalogue is clear, indubitable proof of Venice’s strong position in the world of cinema. It is empirical proof from which the Biennale requires scientific results. Following the work carried out in 2006 which helped establish the various links between cinema, tourism and territory, the Foundation is now conducting a comparative analysis of the three most important European film festivals: Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

Above all, however, the Biennale aims to turn over a new leaf as far as the future structure of the Festival is concerned. The journey towards a historic, imperative milestone is well under way; namely, the construction of a new pavilion, a new Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido. It is a challenge which this Foundation has both promoted and undertaken, and which has led to the recent signing of the protocol agreement between the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Regione del Veneto, Comune di Venezia and Ulss 12; the nomination of an Extraordinary Commissioner and the approval of co-funding for the project by the Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica.