| Location | Venice, Italy |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1932 |
| Awards | Golden Lion: The Great War General della Rovere |
| Festival date | 23 August – 6 September 1959 |
| Website | Website |
The 20th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 23 August to 6 September 1959. [1]
Italian film critic Luigi Chiarini was the Jury President for the main competition. The Golden Lion was awarded to The Great War directed by Mario Monicelli and General della Rovere directed by Roberto Rossellini.
The following films were selected to be screened: [3]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anatomy of a Murder | Otto Preminger | United States | |
| Conflagration | 炎上 | Kon Ichikawa | Japan |
| The Boy and the Bridge | Kevin McClory | United Kingdom | |
| Double Agents | La nuit des espions | Robert Hossein | France |
| Esterina | Carlo Lizzani | Italy | |
| General Della Rovere | Il generale Della Rovere | Roberto Rossellini | Italy |
| The Great War | La grande guerra | Mario Monicelli | |
| Life in Your Hands | В твоих руках жизнь | Nikolai Rozantsev | Soviet Union |
| The Magician | Ansiktet | Ingmar Bergman | Sweden |
| Night Train | Pociąg | Jerzy Kawalerowicz | Poland |
| Sleepless Years | Álmatlan évek | Félix Máriássy | Hungary |
| Sonatas | Juan Antonio Bardem | Spain | |
| Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever? | Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben | Frank Wisbar | West Germany |
| The Doctor's Horrible Experiment | Le Testament du docteur Cordelier | Jean Renoir | France |
| Web of Passion | À double tour | Claude Chabrol | France |
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Some Like It Hot | Billy Wilder | United States | |
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 400 Blows | Les Quatre Cents Coups | François Truffaut | France | |
| Araya | Margot Benacerraf | Venezuela | ||
| Ashes and Diamonds | Popiól I Diament | Andrzej Wajda | Poland | |
| Bari Theke Paliye | Ritwik Ghatak | India | ||
| Black Orpheus | Orfeu Negro | Marcel Camus | France, Brazil, Italy | |
| Campo arado | Leo Fleider | Argentina | ||
| Come Back, Africa | Lionel Rogosin | United States | ||
| The Crossroads | La encrucijada | Alfonso Balcázar | Spain, France | |
| The Day Shall Dawn | Jago Hua Savera | A.J. Kardar | Pakistan | |
| The Day the War Ended | Первый день мира | Yakov Segel | Soviet Union | |
| Los desarraigados | Gilberto Gazcón | Mexico | ||
| The Diary of Anne Frank | George Stevens | United States | ||
| Five in a Million | Pet z milionu | Zbynek Brynych | Czechoslovakia | |
| For Whom the Larks Sing | Akiket a pacsirta elkísér | László Ranódy | Hungary | |
| Four Kilometers Per Hour | Cetiri kilometra na sat | Velimir Stojanović | Yugoslavia | |
| En la ardiente oscuridad | Daniel Tinayre | Argentina | ||
| Fanfare | Bert Haanstra | Netherlands | ||
| A Hero of Our Times | Un eroe dei nostri tempi | Mario Monicelli | Italy | |
| Hiroshima mon amour | Alain Resnais | France, Japan | ||
| I Am Free | Ana hurra | Salah Abouseif | Egypt | |
| Jazz on a Summer's Day | Aram Avakian, Bert Stern | United States | ||
| Kiku to Isamu | Tadashi Imai | Japan | ||
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | Sen noci svatojanske | Jirí Trnka | Czechoslovakia | |
| The Naked General | 裸の大将 | Hiromichi Horikawa | Japan | |
| Nazarín | Luis Buñuel | México | ||
| North by Northwest | Alfred Hitchcock | United States | ||
| Osma vrata | Nikola Tanhofer | Yugoslavia | ||
| Paradise and Fire Oven | Paradies und Feuerofen | Herbert Viktor | West Germany | |
| People in the Net | Menschen im Netz | Franz Peter Wirth | West Germany | |
| The Savage Eye | Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers, Joseph Strick | United States | ||
| Shinel | Шинель | Aleksey Batalov | Soviet Union | |
| Small Dramas | Male dramaty | Janusz Nasfeter | Poland | |
| Stars | Sterne | Konrad Wolf | West Germany | |
| Stories About Lenin | Рассказы о Ленине | Sergei Yutkevich | Soviet Union | |
| Thirst for Love | Sed de amor | Alfonso Corona Blake | Mexico | |
| Tiga Dara | Usmar Ismail | Indonesia | ||
| Tiger Bay | J. Lee Thompson | United Kingdom | ||
| Time Stood Still | Il tempo si è fermato | Ermanno Olmi | Italy | |
| Train Without a Timetable | Vlak bez voznog reda | Veljko Bulajic | Yugoslavia | |
| Tu es Pierre | Philippe Agostini | France | ||