The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the "Big Five" International film festivals worldwide, which include the Big Three European Film Festivals alongside the Toronto Film Festival in Canada and the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. The Festivals are internationally acclaimed for giving creators the artistic freedom to express themselves through film. In 1951, FIAPF formally accredited the festival.
Andrei Sergeyevich Mikhalkov-KonchalovskyOZO is a Russian filmmaker and stage director who has worked in Soviet, Hollywood, and contemporary Russian cinema. He is a laureate of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", a National Order of the Legion of Honour, an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, a Cavalier of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and a People's Artist of the RSFSR. He is the son of writer Sergey Mikhalkov, and the brother of filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov.
Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer is an American-born British film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is known for his Oscar-nominated films The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), Oppenheimer was a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur fellowship and a 1997 Marshall Scholar.
Luisa Ranieri is an Italian actress. She has been seen in a number of miniseries on RAI and has appeared in numerous films, including 2004's Eros and 2021's The Hand of God.
Elio Germano is an Italian actor. He is the recipient of many accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a Silver Bear for Best Actor.
Luca Guadagnino is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has collaborated a number of times with actress Tilda Swinton, including on the films The Protagonists (1999), I Am Love (2009), A Bigger Splash (2015) and Suspiria (2018), a remake of the 1977 film of the same name.
Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian-American documentary filmmaker. His 2013 film Sacro GRA won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice Film Festival, while his 2016 film Fire at Sea won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin Film Festival. Rosi is the only documentary filmmaker to win two highest awards at the three major European film festivals and is the only director besides Michael Haneke, Ang Lee, Ken Loach, and Jafar Panahi to do so in the 21st century.
Alice Bellagamba is an Italian actress and dancer.
The 71st annual Venice International Film Festival took place in Venice, Italy between 27 August to 6 September 2014. The festival opened with Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film Birdman, and closed with Ann Hui's drama film The Golden Era. Italian actress Luisa Ranieri hosted the opening and closing nights of the festival. The Swedish film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, directed by Roy Andersson, won the Golden Lion, and Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence won the Grand Jury Prize.
Signe Byrge Sørensen is a Danish film producer. She is the head of and co-founder of the film production company Final Cut for Real in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sørensen and film director Joshua Oppenheimer were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the 2013 film The Act of Killing. She was also the producer to the critically acclaimed documentary The Look of Silence. Signe Byrge Sørensen a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Danish Film Academy. In 2022, she produced the animated documentary film Flee and was nominated in Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature categories.
The Last Hammer Blow is a 2014 French drama film directed by Alix Delaporte. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival where Romain Paul won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor.
Leopardi is a 2014 Italian drama film directed by Mario Martone. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Look of Silence is a 2014 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The film is a companion piece to his 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. Executive producers were Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Andre Singer. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards.
Return to Ithaca is a 2014 comedy-drama film directed by Laurent Cantet. The film premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Black Souls is a 2014 Italian-French crime drama film directed by Francesco Munzi. It was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was also selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
The State-Mafia Pact is a 2014 Italian documentary film written and directed by Sabina Guzzanti, who also starred in the film. The storyline is about the State-Mafia Pact, the negotiation between Italian State and Cosa Nostra, that is supposed to be occurred after the '92-'93 bombings. It was screened out of competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.
Italy in a Day - Un giorno da italiani is a 2014 Italian-British documentary film directed by Gabriele Salvatores. It was part of the Out of Competition section at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.
The Special Jury Prize is an official award given at the Venice Film Festival to one of the feature films in competition slate since 2013. It is considered the third most prestigious prize at the festival, the runner-up to both the main award Golden Lion and the second place award Grand Jury Prize.
Roberto Minervini is an Italian film director, screenwriter, photographer, and Music Producer. His recent films, focusing on American rural life and marginalized populations, have been praised for their "disarming directness." Minervini's films are notable for their use of both documentary observation and dramatized elements, sometimes in combination.
The 71st annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 1 to 5 March 2021 as a virtual festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An in-person event has also been tentatively scheduled for June, pending the resolution of the COVID-19 issue.
