At the Venice Film Festival, the Orizzonti section, created in 2004 and dedicated to “new trends” in world cinema, is taking a major new step, strengthening and opening itself to all “extra-format” works (including short films, therefore), with a broader and more dynamic overview of the new forms adopted by the expressive languages used in cinema.

 

The renewed Orizzonti section, which will take into account the latest linguistic novelties and most wide-ranging aesthetic experiences, will thus also include all “extra-format” works: films lasting less than an hour or more than two. Particular attention will also be paid to the work of directors who trained in expressive sectors other than cinema.

 

Orizzonti will occupy a new space, also becoming a “laboratory” for different artistic languages within the larger “laboratory” that the Biennale di Venezia actually is, in increasingly close touch with the other sectors.

 

In a drive to rationalised the programming framework, this programme will absorb not only the “CortoCortissimo” section, but also all the “Special Events”.

 

On the subject of the new Orizzonti section, the President of the Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, has stressed: “Through the important overhaul of the Orizzonti section, the Venice Film Festival becomes the place for future forms of cinema. It confirms its commitment to research and not merely to the celebration of directors and films that win the contests. It is taking an important step towards broadening its own ‘horizons’, towards different ideas, methods and technologies, of which cinema might make use in the forthcoming years. In this way, Venice confirms its specific role as an advanced outpost in research into the world of cinema”.

 

The official selection of the 67th Venice Film Festival (1-11 September 2010), directed by Marco Müller and organised by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta, will thus comprise the following sections:

 

·   Venezia 67, the traditional international competition, with the jury awarding the Golden Lion and other official prizes

·   Out of Competition, for significant films of the year by directors of a recognised importance

·   Orizzonti, a competitive section dedicated to the new currents in world cinema, and this year open also to short and “extra-format” films

·   Controcampo italiano, dedicated to new trends in Italian cinema, with a jury awarding the Controcampo italiano prize.

These are some of the new features of the 67th Venice Film Festival approved by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.