10 Facts You Didn’t Know about the Venice Film Festival

The first week in September marks the start of the famous Venice International Film Festival, which every year brings together international actors, directors and critics of the film industry.

The 78th Venice International Film Festival is taking place this year at Venice Lido from the 1st to the 11th September 2021. 

This is one of the busiest and most exciting weeks in Venice, a city loved by actors and directors from all over the world and celebrated in countless movies.

 

 Let’s find out 10 interesting facts about the Venice Film Festival:

1. Founded in Venice in August 1932, it is one of the world’s oldest film festivals and one of the “big three” in Europe , alongside Cannes and  Berlin. Only the Oscars are slightly older than the Venice festival (first held in 1929).
2. The festival is part of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition which includes Italian and international art, architecture, dance, music, theatre and cinema. When the film industry was consolidated as the “eighth art” in 1932, the directors of the Biennale decided to dedicate a separate event to this new art.
3. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. The Palazzo del Cinema was built on the Lido in 1937 and has been the location for every Venice Film Festival with the exception of some years in the 1940s.
4. The very first film screened on the night of the 6th August 1932 was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by the American director Rouben Mamoulian. James Whale’s Frankenstein was another famous film in that first year, which also saw the participation of international stars like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable.
5.  Venice has always been known for its beauty and artistic tradition but it was the film festival that consolidated its artistic reputation around the world. In the first years there was no jury as it was not yet regarded as a competitive festival.  The audience, however,  were so engaged that they would vote for their favourite films: the funniest ( “il film più divertente”), the most moving (“il film più commovente”) and the most original film (“il film dalla fantasia più originale”).
6. The Golden Lion (il Leone d’Oro) is the most coveted award at the festival, awarded to the best film screened in competition. The name comes from the symbol of the city, the Leone di San Marco. Before 1942 the award was called Coppa Mussolini and was awarded to the best Italian and the best foreign films. Last year’s winner was the American Nomadland  by Chloé Zhao. The very first winner in 1946 was another American film, The Southerner  by the French director Jean Renoir.
7. Other awards are the Grand Jury Prize (il Premio della Gran Giuria,  awarded to the second best film screened in competition),  the Silver Lion (il Leone d’Argento, to the best director) and the Volpi Cup (la Coppa Volpi, to the best actor/actress).  The  Marcello Mastroianni award, instituted in 1998 in honour of the great Italian actor to recognize emerging talents, has discovered many new actors throughout the years.  American actress Jennifer Lawrence is one of them;  she was only 18 years old when she won it in 2008 for her role in The Burning Plain. 
8. The audience does not always agree with the jury!  In 1954 Senso by Luchino Visconti and La Strada by Federico Fellini were the  most loved films by the public but the Golden Lion was awarded to Giuletta e Romeo by Renato Castellani. The audience showed their disapproval by whistling during the award ceremony.  Luchino Visconti was again at the centre of controversy when his popular film Rocco e i suoi fratelli  failed to win again in 1960.
9. Even the members of the jury don’t always get along… In 1994 Italian actor/director Carlo Verdone and American filmmaker David Lynch couldn’t reach an agreement. After many discussions they awarded the Golden Lion ex-aequo to Before the rain by Milcho Mancheski and Vive l’amour by Tsai-Ming Liang.  
10. Italy and France are the countries with the most awards for best film, having both won the Leone d’Oro 11 times.

 

Lessico della Mostra del cinema:

• Leone d’Oro/d’Argento = Golden/Silver Lion
• Premio della Gran Giuria= Grand Jury Prize
• Giurati= jury members
• Coppa = cup
• Palazzo del Cinema= cinema palace
• Lungomare = waterfront
• Divertente= funny
• Commovente = moving
• Attore = actor
• Regista = director
• Mostra = show, festival