Venice International Film Festival 2009

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Logo and lettering of the 66th film festival
Palazzo del Cinema
President of the 2009 Festival Jury: Ang Lee
Awarded the special jury prize: Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akin
Awarded the Golden Lion for life's work, from left. to right: Pixar directors Andrew Stanton , Pete Docter , John Lasseter , laudator George Lucas , Lee Unkrich and Brad Bird
The first director to be represented in the competition with two films: Werner Herzog

The 66th Venice International Film Festival ( 66th Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica ) took place from September 2nd to 12th, 2009. 3859 films (including 2519 feature films) from 74 countries applied to participate in the festival, which is one of the three most important A festivals in the world. In the most important section, the competition ( Venezia 66 ), 25 feature films competed for the Golden Lion , the main prize of the festival. This won the Israeli contribution Lebanon by Samuel Maoz .

The festival was opened with the Italian competition entry Baarìa - La porta del vento , an autobiographical epic by Giuseppe Tornatore , which in turn was followed by the out-of-competition Spanish horror film [Rec] 2 by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, the sequel to [● REC] (2007). The Chinese entry Chengdu, where ai ni ( Chengdu, I Love You ) by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian, was chosen as the final film , which was also shown outside of the competition. The Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta moderated the opening and closing ceremony.

Before the film festival began, criticism was expressed of the selection of Marco Müller, the artistic director of the Venice Film Festival. After the trained sinologist had often invited Asian film productions in previous years, the 66th edition will show mostly Italian films (24), followed by US productions (17). Despite the criticism, Müller described the program as his “dream festival” . In contrast to the previous editions, it has been postponed by a week. As a result, it would have been held during the same period as the Toronto International Film Festival , which is important for the North American market . The Canadian organizers then postponed the start of their festival by one week.

As part of the film festival, a golden lion is regularly awarded for the life's work of a filmmaker. The winner was announced at the beginning of May: the directors of the US animation studio Pixar Animation Studios led by John Lasseter . This is the first time that the prize has not only been awarded to a single filmmaker. Lasseter accepted the Golden Lion on September 6th in the presence of Brad Bird , Pete Docter , Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich . The American actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone was also honored with a special prize, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award .

Official Sections

A total of 75 films were shown in the four sections of the film festival. 71 of them celebrated their world premiere.

competition

jury

The jury president was the Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee , who was awarded the Golden Lion in 2005 and 2007 for the films Brokeback Mountain and Danger and Desire .

He was supported by six other jury members:

Movies

25 feature films were shown in the competition, all of which are world premieres. Seven of the films were made in the United States and four were from France and Italy.

After the German directors Christian Petzold ( Jerichow ) and Werner Schroeter ( Nuit de chien ) were unsuccessfully represented in the competition for the Golden Lion last year , three German-speaking filmmakers competed for the main prize in 2009. Fatih Akin was represented with his homeland film Soul Kitchen . The German director of Turkish descent had already received an invitation to the competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May for his comedy about the decline of a specialty restaurant , but was unable to accept it because post-production had not yet been completed . The Austrian Jessica Hausner competed with her feature film Lourdes , which was made in the pilgrimage eart of the same name . The drama was about a paralyzed woman (portrayed by the French Sylvie Testud ) who received a surprising healing, but was skeptical about it. The German director Werner Herzog received an invitation to Venice for his American production Bad Lieutenant - Cop Without Conscience . The thriller was a remake of Abel Ferrara 's film of the same name from 1992. With A Caring Son , Herzog also produced a “surprise film” that was announced during the festival on September 4th. This was the first time that a director was represented in the competition with two films. Women Without Men , the first feature film by Iranian-born video artist Shirin Neshat, was financed with German money . The drama told of the upheaval in Persia in the 1950s.

With Capitalism: A Love Story , a documentary film was included in the competition program for the first time in the history of the festival. This comes from the US filmmaker and Oscar winner Michael Moore and deals with the current financial crisis . Moore's compatriot, the fashion designer Tom Ford , received an invitation for his debut film A Single Man . At the center of the drama is a Los Angeles- based English professor (played by Colin Firth ) who is confronted with the death of his partner. In addition to Neshat and Ford, the Italian Giuseppe Capotondi ( La doppia ora ), the Egyptian Ahmed Maher ( Al Mosafer ) and the Israeli Samuel Maoz ( Lebanon ) also presented their first feature films. With Patrice Chéreau ( Restless ) , Herzog, Michele Placido ( Il grande sogno ), Todd Solondz ( Life During Wartime ) and Giuseppe Tornatore ( Baarìa - La porta del vento ) only five of the 24 directors were represented at least once in the competition for the Golden Lion . Two days before the end of the film festival, another surprise film was announced in the competition with the Filipino entry Lola by Brillante Mendoza .

Movie Director country Actor (selection)
36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup Jacques Rivette France Jane Birkin , Sergio Castellitto , André Marcon
Ahasin Wetei ( Between Two Worlds ) Vimukthi Jayasundara Sri Lanka Thusitha Laknath, Kaushalya Fernando, Huang Lu
Baarìa - La porta del vento Giuseppe Tornatore Italy Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madè, Raoul Bova , Monica Bellucci
Bad Lieutenant - Cop with no conscience Werner Herzog United States Nicolas Cage , Eva Mendes , Val Kilmer , Michael Shannon
Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore United States documentary
The double hour ( La doppia ora ) Giuseppe Capotondi Italy Xenia Rappoport , Filippo Timi , Antonia Truppo , Giorgio Colangeli
Il grande sogno Michele Placido Italy Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca, Luca Argentero, Laura Morante
Lei wangzi ( Prince of Tears ) Yonfan Taiwan, China Chih-Wei Fan, Terri Kwan, Joseph Chang, Kenneth Tsang, Zhu Xuan
Lebanon Samuel Maoz Israel Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen
Life During Wartime Todd Solondz United States Ciarán Hinds , Shirley Henderson , Allison Janney , Charlotte Rampling
Lo spazio bianco Francesca Comencini Italy Margherita Buy , Guido Caprino, Salvatore Cantalupo
Lola * Brilliant Mendoza Philippines Anita Linda , Rustica Carpio, Tanya Gomez, Jhong Hilario
Lourdes Jessica Hausner Austria Sylvie Testud , Léa Seydoux, Bruno Todeschini
Mr. Nobody Jaco Van Dormael France Jared Leto , Diane Kruger , Sarah Polley
Al Mosafer Ahmed Maher Egypt Omar Sharif , Cyrine AbdelNour, Khaled El Nabawy
A Caring Son * Werner Herzog United States Willem Dafoe , Chloë Sevigny , Michael Shannon
Restless (persécution) Patrice Chereau France Romain Duris , Charlotte Gainsbourg , Jean-Hugues Anglade
The Road John Hillcoat United States Charlize Theron , Viggo Mortensen , Guy Pearce , Robert Duvall
A single man Tom Ford United States Colin Firth , Julianne Moore , Matthew Goode
Soul Kitchen Fatih Akin Germany Adam Bousdoukos , Moritz Bleibtreu , Birol Ünel
Survival of the Dead George A. Romero United States Alan Van Sprang , Kenneth Walsh, Devon Bostick, Kathleen Munroe
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man Shin'ya Tsukamoto Taiwan, China Eric Bossick, Akiko Monou, Shinya Tsukamoto
White material Claire Denis France Isabelle Huppert , Nicolas Duvauchelle , Isaach De Bankolé
Yi ngoi ( Accident ) Cheang Pou-Soi China Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Michelle Ye
Women Without Men (Zanan bedun-e mardan) Shirin Neshat Germany Pegah Ferydoni , Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Tóth , Arita Shahrzad

* = Surprise film that was announced during the competition.

Award winners

Best actress: Xenia Rappoport

Orizzonti

The Orizzonti (German: "Horizons") section, which is dedicated to "new ways and possibilities" in global film and primarily wants to promote unconventional films, showed 16 feature films and seven documentaries as well as another film that was called a "surprise film" was only announced during the festival on September 11th. It was Woo Ming Jin's Woman on Fire Looks for Water .

The Spanish director Pere Portabella chaired the international jury . Other jury members were:

As every year, prizes were awarded in the two competition sections feature films and documentaries . The Filipino entry Engkwentro won the feature film award , while Aadmi ki aurat aur anya kahaniya from India received an honorable mention . The Romanian contribution Francesca was selected as the opening film.

Feature films

Movie title Director Country of production
Aadmi ki aurat aur anya kahaniya Amit Dutta India
Choi voi Bui Thac Chuyen Vietnam
Dohawa Raja Amari Tunisia
Dou niu Guan Hu China
Engkwentro Pepe Diokno Philippines
Francesca Bobby Păunescu Romania
Insolação Felipe Hirsch , Daniela Thomas Brazil
Io sono l'amore Luca Guadagnino Italy
Korotkoye samykanije Pyotr Buslow , Alexei German , Boris Chlebnikow , Kirill Serebrennikow , Ivan Wyrypajew Russia
Paraiso Héctor Gálvez Peru
Pepperminta Pipilotti Rist Switzerland
Repo Chick Alex Cox United States
Touxi Liu Jie China
Tris di donne & abiti nuziali Vincenzo Terracciano Italy
Wahed-Sefr Kamla Abu Zekry Egypt
Woman on Fire Looks for Water * Woo Ming Jin Malaysia, South Korea
Delicate parasites Christian Becker , Oliver Schwabe Germany

* = Surprise film that was announced during the competition.

Documentaries

Movie title Director Country of production
1428 You shark China
Il colore delle parole Marco Simon Puccioni Italy
The One All Alone Frank Scheffer Netherlands
Totò Peter Schreiner Austria
Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo Karim Ainouz , Marcelo Gomes Brazil
Villalobos Romuald Karmakar Germany
Women cengjing de wuchanzhe Guo Xiaolu China

Corto Cortissimo

In the Corto Cortissimo series , 18 short films with a length of up to 30 minutes were shown. As Eventi , in addition to the films participating in the competition for awards, shown further six short films.

A jury chaired by the American filmmaker Stuart Gordon decided on the prizes in the section . The other members of the jury were the American film scholar and archivist Steve Ricci and the Russian actress, critic and festival director Sitora Aliyeva . On September 10, the jury awarded the Corto-Cortissimo lion to the South African entry Firstborn by Etienne Kallos . The Georgian director Salomé Aleksi ( Felicità ) received an honorable mention , while the nomination for the European Film Prize 2009 went to the Israeli Meni Philip ( Sinner ).

Movie title Director Country of production length
Bicycle Dean Yamada USA, Japan 22 minutes
Bliss Pedro Freire Brazil 19 minutes
Family jewels Martin Stitt USA, UK 20 minutes
Firstborn Etienne Kallos South Africa, USA 27 minutes
For two Shijie Tan Singapore 17 minutes
The Game Adriano Giannini Italy 18 minutes
GirlLikeMe Rowland Jobson United Kingdom 14 minutes
Happiness Salome Aleksi Georgia 30 minutes
I know there's a man Gianclaudio Cappai Italy 30 minutes
The cinematograph Tomek Bagiński Poland 12 minutes
Kingyo Edmund Yeo Japan 25 minutes
Mom's vacation Kwang-bok Kim Korea 22 minutes
Nuvole, mani Simone Massi France 8 minutes
Object no. 1 Murad Ibragimbekov Russia 5 minutes
Sinner Meni Philip Israel 28 minutes
Still birds Sara Eliassen Norway 13 minutes
Storage David Lea United Kingdom 15 minutes
This is Earth My Brother Jan Cvitkovič Slovenia, Italy 9 minutes

Controcampo Italiano

The Controcampo Italiano festival section was supposed to reflect the latest developments in Italian cinema with its selection of films. The Italian jury was headed by the director Carlo Lizzani , who was supported by his professional colleague Giulio Questi and the journalist and film critic Marina Sanna. Three other films were shown as an event and retrospective, but they did not take part in the competition. The feature film Ten Winter was chosen as the opening film .

The prize went to Susanna Nicchiarelli's feature film Cosmonauta . The Kodak company also awarded the winner film material ( 35 or 16 mm film ) worth 40,000 euros for the creation of a new feature film.

Movie title Director Film genre
Il Compleanno Marco Filiberti motion pictures
Cosmonauta Susanna Nicchiarelli motion pictures
Ten winters (Dieci inverni) Valerio Mieli motion pictures
Hollywood sul Tevere Marco Spagnoli documentary
Negli tatting Francesco Del Grosso , Daniele Anzellotti documentary
Il Piccolo Maurizio Zaccaro documentary
Poeti Toni D'Angelo documentary

Further awards

Photographers gather at the 66th Film Festival

Other awards were presented at the Venice Film Festival.

The Premio Luigi De Laurentiis was awarded by a jury chaired by the director Haile Gerima together with the directors Ramin Bahrani (USA), Gianni Di Gregorio (Italy), Antoine Fuqua (USA) and the British artist Sam Taylor Wood . The award honored the best debut film by a director ( Lion of the Future ), all sections could be considered. The Filipino contribution Engkwentro by Pepe Diokno ( Orizzonti section ) was awarded.

The Persol 3-D Award , named after a sponsor of the film festival, was given to a 3D film for the first time . Only works produced between September 2008 and August 2009 could participate. Italian 3D director Nadia Ranocchi and American critics Scott Foundas and Dave Kehr have been appointed to a jury by the artistic direction of the Venice Film Festival . The award-winning thriller The Hole by Joe Dante .

Independently of the film festival, the Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani organized the International Critics' Week (SIC) and the Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici (ANAC) together with the Associazione Autori e Produttori Indipendenti (API) two of their own film series. The Italian Film Critics Association named Choi Voi by Bui Thac Chuyen as the best film.

Films out of competition

Matt Damon in Venice

As every year, in 2009 numerous films will be shown outside the competition categories. In addition to [Rec] 2 and Chengdu, where ai ni , some well-known filmmakers are presenting their works to the public for the first time: the US director Steven Soderbergh showed the film The Informant! with Matt Damon in the title role. In the series Cinema del presente asked Oliver Stone 's new documentary South of the Border before, in the series Mezzanotte was Antoine Fuqua's crime drama Brooklyn's Finest with Richard Gere , Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke in the lead roles. Sherry Hormann's Desert Flower , the film adaptation of the life story of the same name by model Waris Dirie from Somalia , also premiered .

Web links

Commons : 2009 Venice Film Festival  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Official Awards ( memento of April 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at labiennale.org, September 12, 2009
  2. ↑ cf. Lion race between old and new world at nzz.ch, September 2, 2009 (accessed on September 2, 2009)
  3. ↑ cf. Kothenschulte, Daniel The film orgy at fr-online.de, September 1, 2009 (accessed on September 2, 2009)
  4. ↑ cf. Zander, Peter: Michael Moore falls in love with capitalism at welt.de, September 1, 2009 (accessed September 3, 2009)
  5. ↑ cf. McElroy, Steven: Venice Honors a Pixar Founder . In: The New York Times , May 11, 2009, Section C, Column 0, The Arts / Cultural Desk, p. 2
  6. ↑ cf. AFP : Lasseter, Pixar win career Golden Lion at Venice filmfest on google.com, September 6, 2009 (accessed September 7, 2009)
  7. ↑ cf. The "Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker" Award ( Memento from August 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at labiennale.org, August 12, 2009 (accessed September 12, 2009)
  8. ↑ cf. Fatih Akin turns Cannes down . In: Berliner Morgenpost , April 17, 2009, edition 104/2009, p. 14
  9. ↑ cf. Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? is the first Surprise Film in Competition ( Memento from September 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at labiennale.org, September 4, 2009 (accessed on September 5, 2009)
  10. ↑ cf. 'Lola' is the second Surprise Film in Competition ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at labiennale.org, September 10, 2009 (accessed September 11, 2009) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.labiennale.org
  11. ↑ cf. Official Awards: Corto Cortissimo ( Memento from September 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at labiennale.org, September 10, 2009 (accessed on September 12, 2009)
  12. ↑ cf. Collateral Awards ( memento of December 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at labiennale.org, September 12, 2009