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Above: Juan Gatti’s original Spanish poster for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain).

After covering the posters for the very first and the current New York Film Festivals, I thought it might be fitting, in this last year of Richard Peña’s tenure as Program Director and Selection Committee Chairman of the festival, to gather all the posters from Peña’s very first Nyff, 24 years ago.

In the current edition of Film Comment—an essential souvenir of the history of the festival to date, complete with a list of every feature film to have played the festival in its 50 years—Gavin Smith writes that “The 25-film lineup of the 1988 Nyff was partly a reflection of the decade’s drift and uncertainty—two came from Nyff veterans (Sergei Paradjanov, Marcel Ophuls), two were post-Glasnost rediscoveries (Andrei Konchalovsky, Larissa Shepitko), and nine were bets that didn...

Simone Eder and Carlotta Corvi report from the Venice International Film Festival.

The 68th was certainly a memorable year with the overall quality of the films being very high and the films for the lineup well selected. Some films surprised while some films disappointed, and most of them will be talked about in the coming weeks and months.

Day 1

The longest running Film festival in the World kicked off its 68th Edition Festival at the Lido in Venice with the world premiere of George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March starring Ryan Gosling, Clooney himself, Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman,and was the first film shown in competition for the Golden Lion. Promoted as intense tale of sex, ambition, loyalty, betrayal and revenge the film was however less cynical and shocking than promised and contained a couple of weak plot points. The actors, especially the supporting cast,...

Official Awards of the 68th Venice Film Festival

Venezia 68

Golden Lion for Best Film

Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)

Silver Lion for Best Director

Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong)

Special Jury Prize

Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actor

Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actress

Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono (Japan)

Osella for the Best Cinematography

Robbie Ryan for the film Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom)

Osella for Best Screenplay

Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for the film Alpis (Alps) by Yorgos Lanthimos (Grecia)

Lion of the Future -...

Aleksandr Sokurov's Faust has won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. Now's a good time to catch up with Daniel Kasman's review.

The Jury, headed by Darren Aronofsky, awarded the Silver Lion (Best Director) to Cai Shangjun for People Mountain People Sea.

The Special Jury Prize goes to Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma. A roundup was posted earlier today.

The Osella for Best Screenplay goes to Giorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou for Alps. (Roundup and Daniel Kasman's review.)

The Osella for Best Cinematography: Robbie Ryan for Wuthering Heights. (Roundup.)

Michael Fassbender wins the Volpi Cup (Best Actor) for his performance in Steve McQueens's Shame (roundup), while the Volpi Cup for Best Actress goes to Deanie Ip for her performance in Ann Hui's A Simple Life (roundup and Daniel Kasman's review).

The Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor) goes to Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido for their work in Sion Sono's Himizu.

Faust directed by Aleksander Sokurov of Russia won the Golden Lion for the Best Film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. The festival came to a close on September 10 with the award ceremony.

The Special Jury prize went to Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese of Italy.

Fipresci Prizes went to Shame directed by Steve McQueen of UK and Two Years at Sea directed by Ben Rivers of UK.

The Indian films that were presented at the festival are Amit Dutta’s Sonchidi and Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghore Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse).

Official Awards of the 68th Venice Film Festival

Golden Lion for Best Film

Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)

Silver Lion for Best Director

Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China – Hong Kong)

Special Jury Prize

Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)

Coppa Volpi for Best Actor

Michael Fassbender in...

Dueling festival lineups! It seems that for every announcement for the Toronto International Film Festival lineup comes a competing (and often overlapping)  one from Venice.  Here we're collecting the finalized Venice lineups so far. (Above image: Philippe Garrel's A Burning Hot Summer.)

Competition

The Ides of March (George Clooney, USA) (opening night) 4:44 Last Day on Earth (Abel Ferrara, USA) Alps (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece) A Burning Hot Summer (Philippe Garrel, France) Carnage (Roman Polanski, France/Germany/Spain/Poland) Chicken With Plums (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, France/Belgium/Germany) A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, Canada) Dark Horse (Todd Solondz, USA) The Exchange (Eran Kolirin, Israel/Germany) Faust (Alexander Sokurov, Russia) Himizu (Sion Sono, Japan) Killer Joe (William Friedkin, USA) Life without Principle (Johnnie To, Hk) Quando la notte (Cristina Comencini, Italy) Seediq Bale (Wei Desheng, Taiwan) Shame (Steve McQueen, UK) Terraferma (Emanuele Crialese, Italy) Texas Killing Fields (Ami Canaan Mann,...