The passing of the great director and documentarian Frederick Wiseman

The President, the General Director, the Artistic Director of the Cinema Department, and La Biennale di Venezia express their deepest condolences on the passing of the great director Frederick Wiseman, an undisputed master of documentary cinema and an unforgettable voice of independent film. La Biennale di Venezia is proud to have awarded him the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival in 2014.

Frederick Wiseman’s long-standing relationship with the Venice Film Festival spanned more than fifty years, from the late 1960s to 2023. Throughout this time, he presented twelve films at the Festival: Law and Order in 1969, Hospital in 1970, La Comédie Française ou l’Amour joué  in 1996, Domestic Violence in 2001, La danse – Le ballet de l’Opéra de Paris in 2009, At Berkeley in 2013, In Jackson Heights in 2015, Ex Libris – The New York Public Library in 2017, Monrovia, Indiana in 2018, City Hall in 2020, Un couple in 2022, and Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros in 2023.