Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Assayas is known for his slow-burning period pieces, psychological thrillers, neo-noirs and French comedies. His work has become synonymous with the film movement known as the New French Extremity and has collaborated frequently with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. The son of filmmaker Jacques Rémy, Assayas began his career as a critic for influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Here he wrote about the World Cinema and its film auteurs who would later influence his own works. Assayas made several shorts, and then made the leap from writer to screenwriter.
Chasing Liberty is a 2004 romantic comedy film directed by Andy Cadiff and starring Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode. Written by Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman, the film is about the 18-year-old daughter of the President of the United States whose rebellion against the constant presence of Secret Service agents in her life leads to a European adventure and an unexpected romance. Chasing Liberty was filmed on location in Prague, Venice, Berlin, London, Chelmsford and Washington, D.C.
The 62nd annual Venice International Film Festival opened on 31 August 2005 with Tsui Hark's Seven Swords and closed on 10 September 2005 with a screening of Peter Ho-sun Chan's musical Perhaps Love. The lineups were announced by the festival director Marco Müller on 28 July 2005 in Rome. The digital films can compete in all categories for the first time of the festival history.
Little Vera, produced at the Gorky Film Studio and released in 1988, is a film by Russian film director Vasili Pichul. The title in Russian is ambiguous and can also mean "Little Faith," symbolizing the characters' lack of hope.
The 63rd annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was opened on 30 August 2006 with Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia and was closed on 9 September 2006. Host of the event was Italian actress Isabella Ferrari. During the festival, retrospectives were held on the one hundredth anniversary of the births of three major Italian directors: Roberto Rossellini, Mario Soldati and Luchino Visconti. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to American director David Lynch. All the films running the contest were shown for the first time as world premiere in the festival history since the Second World War.
Dog Days is a 2001 Austrian feature film directed by Ulrich Seidl. The film stars a mix of professional and amateur actors and follows six interwoven stories set in suburban Vienna over the course of some unseasonably hot summer days. The film premiered at the 2001 Venice Film Festival where it went on to win the Grand Special Jury Prize and also won awards at the International Film Festival Bratislava and the Gijon International Film Festival.
The Night of the Shooting Stars is a 1982 Italian fantasy war drama film directed by Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani. It was written by Giuliani G. De Negri, Paolo Taviani, Tonino Guerra, and Vittorio Taviani. It was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Special Grand Prix. The film was selected by Italy as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Ulrich Maria Seidl is an Austrian film director, writer and producer. Among other awards, his film Dog Days won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice in 2001.
Le Amiche is a 1955 Italian black-and-white drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, and Valentina Cortese. Adapted from Cesare Pavese's novel Tra donne sole (1949), the film is about a young woman who returns to her native Turin to set up a new fashion salon and becomes involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy friends. The film was shot on location in Turin, Piemonte, Italy. Le Amiche received the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion award in 1955, and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon Award for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.
The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was Baarìa by Giuseppe Tornatore and the closing film was Chengdu, I Love You by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian. The international competition jury, chaired by Ang Lee, awarded the Golden Lion to Lebanon by Samuel Maoz.
The 67th annual Venice International Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, took place from 1 to 11 September 2010. American film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was the head of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, and the closing film was Julie Taymor's The Tempest. John Woo was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement prior to the start of the Festival.
Paradise is the collective name of three films directed by Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Love (2012), Paradise: Faith (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). They focus on three women from one family; one of them travels to Kenya as a sex tourist, one has to spend time at a weight loss camp, and one tries to propagate Catholicism. The project is an Austrian majority production with co-producers in Germany and France. It was conceived as one feature film, but after a long gestation became three entries forming a trilogy. The first installment, Paradise: Love, competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Seidl originally planned to premiere all three films at the same event, but after the Cannes selection decided to roll out parts two and three, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope, at other major film festivals. The individual films are named after the three theological virtues, and focus on how the protagonists conceive their view of paradise.
Unforgivable is a 2011 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring André Dussollier, Carole Bouquet, and Mélanie Thierry. The film is an adaptation of Philippe Djian's novel Unforgivable which received the Jean Freustié award in 2009. It was previously called The Angels Terminus. The film premiered at the Directors' Fortnight at the 2011 Cannes film festival.
Paradise: Love is a 2012 drama film directed by Ulrich Seidl. It tells the story of a 50-year-old white woman who travels to Kenya as a sex tourist. The project is an Austrian production with co-producers in Germany and France. It is the first installment in Seidl's Paradise trilogy, a project first conceived as one film with three parallel stories.
Lines of Wellington is a 2012 Franco-Portuguese epic war film and television series prepared by Chilean director Raúl Ruiz and completed by his widow Valeria Sarmiento. Its title refers to the historical Lines of Torres Vedras.
The 69th annual Venice International Film Festival, organized by Venice Biennale, took place at Venice Lido from 29 August to 8 September 2012. The festival opened with the Indian director Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and closed with the Out of Competition film The Man Who Laughs, directed by Jean-Pierre Ameris. Terrence Malick's film To the Wonder was met with both boos and cheers from critics at its premiere.
Dormant Beauty is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Toni Servillo and Isabelle Huppert. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. For this film Maya Sansa won the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actress.
The 70th annual Venice International Film Festival took place in Venice, Italy from 28 August to 7 September 2013. American film director William Friedkin was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci was the President of the Jury. He was previously the President of the Jury at the 40th edition in 1983. Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, was the opening film of the festival. Italian actress Eva Riccobono hosted the opening and closing nights of the festival.
The 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August to 10 September 2016. English director Sam Mendes was the President of the Jury for the main competition. The opening night film was Damien Chazelle's musical La La Land. The Golden Lion was awarded to Lav Diaz's film The Woman Who Left.
About Endlessness is a 2019 Swedish drama film directed by Roy Andersson. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. At the Venice Film Festival, the film won the Silver Lion for Best Direction.
