The Venice Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the whole world, founded by Benito Mussolini, a famous odious person. But over the long years of its existence, starting from 1932 to the present day, the film festival has opened to the world not only American, French and German filmmakers, screenwriters, actors, but also Soviet, Japanese, Iranian cinema.
Venice is a city of art
It is known that in Venice, art began to be shown as early as 1895. This year there was held the world's first exhibition of paintings, later called the Venice Biennale.
And already since the thirties of the twentieth century, the festival began to show the achievements of theatrical and musical art. Thus, the Venice Festival brought together all the achievements of human art.
Previously, the festival was held on the island of Lido after the end of winter, now fans of cinema art come to the island in August-September. Many remember that Mussolini himself and Count Giuseppe Volpi, who were members of the fascist organization, opened the international screening of films, but the Italians themselves are quite calm about this. Spaghetti lovers have already closed this page of history.
Cannes and Roman Film Festivals
The Venice Festival opened two other film festivals. The famous Cannes, opened in 1939, and the Roman, which opened recently, only eleven years ago. The French moved to Cannes only because in those years, German films were preferred at the Lido festival. But the Roman festival was created to protect Italian cinema from the invasion of American cinema.
Nevertheless, Americans still travel to Rome and Cannes with undisguised pleasure. Nevertheless, the Venice Film Festival is the first festival in terms of the quality of awards and prestige, the second place is the Cannes Festival, and then all the rest.
First grand prize
It is interesting that at the first film festival the main prize was received by Nikolai Ekk's painting “A ticket to life”. This is a film about street children, shot in the Soviet Union. And in 1935, the American film "Anna Karenina" with Greta Garbo in the title role became the winner at this festival. In 1951, the Venice Film Festival presented the main award, The Golden Lion, to Japanese director Akir Kurosawa for the film Rasemon.
Masters of Italian neo-realism Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini, Antonioni for the first time received well-deserved awards in Venice, as well as French masters - Jean-Luc Godard and Alain René - gained popularity due to the fact that they arrived at the Venice Festival of International Art.
Venice did not pass by Soviet art either. So, the film "Sadko" by Alexander Ptushko, as well as the film adaptation of Chekhov's "Jumpers" by Samson Samsonov, received their "Silver Lions" in the middle of the last century.
Thanks to the Venice International Film Festival, the whole world learned about Andrei Tarkovsky, who received the Golden Lion for the painting Ivan's Childhood.
Hard times for the festival
Besides the triumph, the festival also remembers the “dark days” when it had to be closed twice. This first happened during the Second World War, when it was not before the festivals, but the second time - in the late sixties. The Italian government decided to introduce its own rules in the competition programs, which ultimately led to the complete cancellation of the festival.
Venice Film Festival. Winners and winners for several years
It was revived only in 1979, and did not begin to abolish those rules that were before that. The rules of the Venice International Film Festival include strict conditions. Films of the main competition do not have the right to be shown at other festivals, the public in no case should not see them somewhere. In 2010, this condition led to a scandal at the Russian film festival “Kinotavr - 2010”, when the film “Oatmeal” was removed from the competition for participation in the festival in Venice.
The best films of the Venice Film Festival receive gold and silver awards in the form of lions. There is a prize of Marcello Mastroianni to the best young actor or actress, Volpi Cups are awarded for best male role and best female role, there is a special jury prize, screenwriters and cameramen also receive their awards.
In the entire history of the festival, three directors were awarded twice to become laureates of the Golden Lion. These are Andre Cayat, Louis Mull and Zhang Yimou. In addition to Ivanov’s childhood, the main prize was awarded to films by Russian directors - Nikita Mikhalkov (Urga) and The Return of Alexei Zvyagintsev.
Andrei Konchalovsky's film at the 2016 festival
The Venice festival, the film by Andrei Konchalovsky “Paradise”, where Russian, German and French actors starred, was appreciated. The painting received the Silver Lion. Director Love Diaz walked around with his film "The Woman Who Left."
The jury included well-known directors and actors, such as Gemma Arterton, Chiara Mastorianni, Vicki Zhaoni, Nina Hoss, Lori Anderson and others. In 2016, the film festival was directed by director Sam Mendes. In addition to the Silver Winged Lion, Andrei Konchalovsky received other unofficial awards. The director said that he was interested in the inner world of the heroes, how they fight themselves with good and evil, and that they win.
For the first time, Andrei Konchalovsky got to the Venice International Film Festival in 1962 as a co-author of the script for Andrei Tarkovsky’s painting “Ivan Childhood”. In 2014, he presented to the public at this film festival the painting “White Nights of the Postman Alexei Tryapitsyn”, which completed the director’s trilogy about the Russian outback. The painting received the Silver Winged Lion. Konchalovsky, known as the director of several blockbusters in Hollywood, is always expected and welcomed in Venice.
To greet him on the red carpet, the audience gathered two hours before the premiere. The film "Paradise" is an auteur cinema shot in black and white and in its design is similar to a documentary. Three actors - Julia Vysotskaya, who played the Russian aristocrat, German actor Christian Klaus, who played the role of SS officer and Frenchman Philip Duchenne, who played the collaborator Jules - kept the audience in suspense for almost two hours. After the premiere, the audience standing ovation to everyone who created this film.
Other winners of the Venice Festival
Also, “Silver Lion” received another director Amat Escalante for the film “Wilderness”. The award for Best Actor went to actor Oscar Martinez for his work in the film "The Famous Citizen", and the prize for Best Actress was received by the wonderful American actress Emma Stone, who played in the film "La La Land".
The young actress Paula Bear received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for acting debut in Francois Ozon's "Franz". There were many more official and unofficial prizes and awards.
The main thing is that the festival lives an active life and makes us happy with the news of this movie.