I’m going to the Biennale – The Venice Film Festival! This really isn’t news, since I bought my airline ticket and paid in advance for a hotel on Lido months ago. I was going with or without a press pass – but I got the press pass.
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world, and though probably not as important as it once was, it’s still usually ranked up there with Cannes and Sundance. It’s important to me; that’s all I know.
The Film Festival’s principal awards are the Leone d’Oro (Golden Lion), which is awarded to the best film screened in competition at the festival, the Leone d’Argento (Silver Lion) for the Best Director, and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup), which is awarded to the best actor and actress.
This year’s Jury presidents will be (hurray!) the very good-looking actor Pierfrancesco Favino and producer Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers), the prestigious Indian filmmaker. (Look out, Pierfrancesco – I’ll be stalking you.)
Last year I was pretty overwhelmed and didn’t make use of my press pass as I should have; I showed up on the train not even knowing where the film festival was, and the hotel I chose couldn’t have been farther away from where I needed to be. But last year I watched and I learned, and this year I will be providing a vastly improved coverage of the event, which runs August 29 through September 8.
I Love Italian Everything 