fbpx Biennale Cinema 2022 | Introduction by Roberto Cicutto
La Biennale di Venezia

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Introduction by

Roberto Cicutto

President of La Biennale di Venezia

History, tradition and future

The 79th Venice International Film Festival coincides with two very significant anniversaries.
The first—the 90th year after its foundation in 1932—signals the importance of an event that has shaped the history of cinema and that has led to its official recognition as the seventh art.
The second—ten years of activity on the part of the Biennale College Cinema—has made a concrete contribution to its history by looking to the future and taking on board the experience gained from new technologies and new forms of storytelling.
Both anniversaries have found a tangible mark in two important publications: Gian Piero Brunetta’s volume La Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia 1932-2022, published by Edizioni La Biennale di Venezia and Marsilio Editori, and the book Dieci – Biennale College Cinema 2012-2022, published by Edizioni La Biennale di Venezia.
History, tradition and future have been present in all the sectors of La Biennale di Venezia throughout the 127 years of its existence (1895, date of the first International Art Exhibition, not coincidentally also that of the first screening of the Lumière brothers’ invention).
College Cinema is accompanied by colleges devoted to Dance, Music, Theatre and, from this year, the Art Exhibition too.
The dialogue between the arts fostered by La Biennale has found a home in the now up and running International Centre for Research on the Contemporary Arts, a natural extension of the activity of the Biennale’s Historical Archive.
The venues of La Biennale and the Film Festival in particular have already benefited from major investments in infrastructure and technological upgrading, and will do so even more in the coming years. In particular these have been aimed at attaining carbon neutrality, a primary objective since 2020 that has already achieved concrete results, such as the supply of energy solely from green sources and financial compensation based on the collection of data on CO2 emission at all our events.
All this has been made possible by collateral funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which have been allocated to La Biennale as part of a program aimed at the strengthening of its activities and the renovation of important sites in the city, such as the Arsenale, the Lido, Forte Marghera and the Parco Albanese alla Bissuola in Mestre.

To meet the expectations

The Venice International Film Festival has a worldwide reputation and has always been able to accompany the presentation of films and filmmakers not only with a powerful media impact, but also and above all with add-ons and initiatives that have made it one of the most important observation posts of technological development and artistic research in the audiovisual field. But the Biennale Cinema is also a place of memory with its presentation of restored classics and the presence of many figures who have left their mark on decades of cinematic history, making it an extraordinary mirror of the social, economic, political and cultural evolution of the entire world.
The whole of La Biennale has always known how to live in history, without ever neglecting the most dramatic critical issues of the moment and often succeeding in reacting to them in a timely and effective way.
It has shown this over the two difficult years of the pandemic, staging the editions of both 2020 and 2021 and coming up with organizational responses to hitherto unknown emergencies. It will do so again this year by putting on an event of international appeal, with the presence of figures of the highest level from all over the world, and opening up its spaces to those who work in the cinema and for the cinema as well as to those who simply love it or view it as a catwalk of stars. It is our duty to meet the expectations of all these people, as well as to remember that we cannot yet consider the emergency completely over, certain that we can count, as has happened in the last two years, on the sense of responsibility of everyone who takes part and who loves the oldest and most longlived of film festivals.

Thanks

I would like to thank all the institutions, the Ministry of Culture, the City of Venice, the Region of Veneto, the Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape Service of the Municipality of Venice and the Lagoon and all those who have contributed to the most successful and safest staging of the Film Festival.

My gratitude also goes to all the sponsors who have supported the 79th Venice International Film Festival.

The main sponsors Campari, Cartier, MasterCard and Armani beauty.

Lexus, UPS, Moet&Chandon, Repower, Thelios, Major Events Media, Canon and Radio Italia.

This year also sees the beginning of a collaboration with the Vivendi group for the film and College activities of La Biennale di Venezia.

Thanks to RAI, main broadcaster of the Film Festival and media partner of La Biennale di Venezia.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the director Alberto Barbera and all his staff.

As well, of course, as the whole team of La Biennale, without whose professionalism nothing of what we do would be possible.

Biennale Cinema
Biennale Cinema