The 69th Festival in 2012 saw Alberto Barbera as the new artistic director alongside remarkable new initiatives: the launch of Biennale College - Cinema, a higher education training workshop for the development and production of micro-budget audio-visual works, and the establishment of the Venice Film Market in dedicated spaces at the Excelsior Hotel. As part of the renovation – in agreement with the City of Venice – of the existing facilities of the Festival, which included the restoration of the Sala Grande in 2011, a new, larger and more functional foyer in the Palazzo del Cinema was built to welcome the public. The intervention also included the renovation of two historic screening rooms, the Pasinetti and Zorzi, for an overall extension of 50 more seats.
The retrospective was titled «80!» on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival (1932-2012) and presented unique copies of films thought to be lost but actually existing in the Biennale's ASAC archive collections. This was complemented by the Venice Classics section of restored classic films. The opening film was Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist; the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was given to Italian director Francesco Rosi, who received the award from Giuseppe Tornatore. The main jury chaired by Michael Mann awarded the Golden Lion toPietaby Kim Ki-duk and the Silver Lion and the Coppa Volpi for best actor toThe Masterby Paul Thomas Anderson and the two actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. Among the stars that were on the red carpet, Robert Redford (his first-time attendance on the Lido), Michael Cimino (Persol Award), Spike Lee (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Film-maker Award), Brian De Palma, Jonathan Demme, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Winona Ryder, Michael Shannon, Ray Liotta, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Fassbender, Isabelle Huppert, Claudia Cardinale, Noomi Rapace, Kristin Scott Thomas, Olga Kurylenko, Emmanuelle Seigner, Takeshi Kitano, Peter Brook, Liliana Cavani, Marco Bellocchio, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Barbora Bobulova and teen-idols such as Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, James Franco, and Shia LaBeouf.
To celebrate its 70th edition, the Festival of 2013, directed by Alberto Barbera, created the special project, Venezia 70 - Future Reloaded: 70 directors from all around the world made a short film, lasting between 60 and 90 seconds, in total creative freedom. All these short films were given their world premiere at the Lido during the 70th Festival. The 2013 edition also presented the 3 feature films of theBiennale College – Cinema, an advanced workshop opened to young filmmakers from around the world for the production of micro-budget films, launched at the 2012 Festival. The 2nd edition of theVenice Film Marketalso proved to be a success, set up in dedicated spaces at the Hotel Excelsior, and involving 246 major distributors. As part of the redevelopment of the historic structures of the Festival – carried out jointly with the City of Venice – the Palazzo del Casinò had a new 150-seat room (Sala Casinò) and the Press Room was expanded and technologically improved.
Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney,was the opening film in 3D. TheGolden Lion for Lifetime Achievementof the Biennale was awarded to American film directorWilliam Friedkin. The Jury of the Venice 70 competition, headed by Bernardo Bertolucci, awarded the Golden Lion to the filmSacro GRAby the Italian director Gianfranco Rosi. The Italian film master Ettore Scola received the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award. For the occasion his film was screened,Che strano chiamarsi Federico, a homage to Federico Fellini 20 years after his passing; present at the screening was thePresident of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. Among the other masters and stars on the Lido were Andrzej Wajda (Persol Award, awarded in the presence of Lech Walesa), Paul Schrader, Bret Easton Ellis, Mia Wasikowska, Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, James Franco, Scott Haze, Tom Welling, Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Hardy, Scarlett Johansson, Errol Morris, Terry Gilliam, Stephen Frears, Amos Gitai, Kim Ki-duk, Patrice Leconte, Pablo Larraín, Sion Sono, Edgar Reitz, Tsai Ming-liang, Wang Bing, Philippe Garrel, Anna Mouglalis, Louis Garrel, Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, Richard Madden, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Virginie Ledoyen, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Jiang Wen, Ken Watanabe, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gianni Amelio, Alba Rohrwacher, Antonio Albanese, Giuseppe Battiston, Anita Caprioli, Marco Paolini, and Carlo Verdone.
In 2014, following an agreement with the Venice City Council, the Sala Darsena theatre was completed renovated and enlarged from 1300 to 1409 seats: the inaugural event took place on 26 August for the Festival pre-opening dedicated to the anniversary of World War I, featuring the screening ofMaciste alpino(1916) by Luigi Maggi and Luigi Romano Borgnetto (direction supervisor Giovanni Pastrone) in a new restored copy.Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu starring Michael Keaton was the opening film on 27 August. The Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement were awarded to film editorThelma Schoonmakerand to directorFrederick Wiseman. TheVenezia 71jury, chaired by Alexandre Desplat, awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film toEn duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron(A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence) byRoy Andersson. The actor, director, screenwriter and producer James Franco was presented the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award 2014. Actress Frances McDormand was presented the Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award 2014.
Stars on the red carpet included Al Pacino, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni , Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Shannon, Abel Ferrara, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Andrea Riseborough , Stellan Skarsgård, Tahar Rahim, Maria De Medeiros, Anna Mouglalis, Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Luca Zingaretti, Milla Jovovich, Ryô Kase, Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, Alexandra Daddario, Shinya Tsukamoto, Wang Xiaoshuai, Amos Gitai, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Ann Hui, Im Kwontaek, Barry Levinson, Hong Sangsoo, Fatih Akin, David Gordon Green, Andrew Niccol, Benoît Jacquot, Xavier Beauvois, Ulrich Seidl, Aléx de la Iglesia, Ami Canaan Mann, and Michael Almereyda. Three feature films in theBiennale College – Cinemasection were presented:H. by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia,Blood Cellsby Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, andShort Skinby Duccio Chiarini. The 3rd edition of theVenice Film Markettook place in dedicated spaces at the Excelsior Hotel.
The 72nd Venice Film Festival opened on 2 September 2015 featuring Everest by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. During 11 days of programming, the Festival honoured Jonathan Demme (Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award), Bertrand Tavernier (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement) and Brian De Palma (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award); a tribute was also paid to Arturo Ripstein to celebrate his fifty-year career. The project Biennale College - Cinema for the production of micro-budget feature films presented its third edition: the three films screened were Baby Bump by Kuba Czekaj (Poland), Blanka by Kohki Hasei (Japan), and The Fits by Anna Rose Holmer (USA). The Cinema in the Garden was the new section in the line-up that included films, talks and visions at the Casino garden. The international jury of the section Venezia 72 was chaired by Alfonso Cuarón: after viewing the 21 films running for the competition, the jury awarded the Golden Lion to Desde allá (From Afar) by Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas, at his first feature-length film. The Orizzonti jury, chaired by Jonathan Demme, awarded the main prize to Free In Deed by Jake Mahaffy, the director’s second feature.
Stars on the red carpet included: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci, Johnny Depp, Dakota Johnson, Juliette Binoche, Eddie Redmayne, Amber Heard, Kristen Stewart, Nicholas Hoult, Stacy Martin, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Shia LaBeouf, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alba Rohrwacher, Laurie Anderson, Bruno Ganz, Valeria Golino, and Italian rock star Vasco Rossi.
The 73rd Venice Film Festival presented two important new features in 2016: the new market called Venice Production Bridge and the enhancement of the Cinema nel Giardino section; the VPB focused in particular on the presentation and exchange of original projects for films and works in progress, so as to foster their development and production; a brand new 446-seat screening theatre was made for the Cinema nel Giardino: screenings were preceded or followed by encounters and discussions with directors, stars and personalities in the fields of art and culture. Moreover, the VR Theatre was a new space used from 1-4 Sept. to present selected scenes from the first ever feature-length movie in Virtual Reality (Jesus VR – The Story of Christ) alongside a selection of previous “VR films”.
The Festival kicked off on 31 August featuring the musical La La Land by Damien Chazelle: the film was to win 7 Golden Globes and 14 Oscar nominations. Two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement were awarded to Jerzy Skolimowski and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The Biennale College – Cinema section presented four features produced and realised in the context of the Festival: Orecchie - Ears by Alessandro Aronadio, Mukti Bhawan – Hotel Salvation by Shubhashish Bhutiani, Una hermana by Sofia Brockenshire and Verena Kuri, and La Soledad by Jorge Thielen Armand. The Jury of the Venezia 73 competition, chaired by Sam Mendes, awarded the Golden Lion to Ang babaeng humayo (The Woman Who Left) by Lav Diaz; Silver Lion to Nocturnal Animals by Tom Ford.
Stars on the red carpet included: Emma Stone, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, James Franco, Dakota Fanning, Silvio Orlando, Jude Law, Emmanuelle Seigner, Andrew Garfield, Cristiana Capotondi, Natalie Portman, Filippo Timi, Margherita Buy, Monica Bellucci, and Denzel Washington.
In 2017 the Festival ran from 30 August to 9 September, screening Alexander Payne’s Downsizing as the opening film. The section Venice Virtual Reality was significantly improved by launching a new competition dedicated to works in virtual reality, whose Jury was chaired by John Landis. The Venice Virtual Reality took place in the small island of the Lazzaretto Vecchio, with stand ups, installations and the VR Theater available for accredited visitors.
The Jury of the main competition was chaired by Annette Bening, and the Golden Lion for Best Film went to The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro. The Orizzonti jury was chaired by Gianni Amelio, the winner film of this section was Nico by Susanna Nicchiarelli. Other major awards included the two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement presented to Jane Fonda and Robert Redford, and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award presented to Stephen Frears. The fifth edition of the Biennale College Cinema screened three feature films: Strange Colours by Alena Lodkina, Martyr by Mazen Khaled, and Beautiful Things by Giorgio Ferrero.
Stars on the red carpet on the Lido included Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Sally Hawkins, Chloë Sevigny, Hafsia Herzi, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Charlotte Rampling, Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Sam Neill, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Takeshi Kitano, and Penélope Cruz.
In 2018 the Venice Film Festival celebrated its 75th edition with two important publications: Happy 75°, entrusted to film historian Peter Cowie with the task to outlining a history of the Festival. Using archive materials, the English journalist developed in seven chapters, featuring photographs, an introduction to the events of the Festival, retracing transformations, setbacks and rebirths, year after year, from 1932 up to the present day. Also published the catalogue of the exhibition, Il Cinema in Mostra – Volti e immagini dalla Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica 1932-2018, set up in the historic Hotel des Bains at Venice Lido which was reopened to the public for the occasion. The catalogue is a story by images, a collection of posters, film frames, and vintage photographs that immortalise the stars, the public and the iconic places of the Festival.
The 75th Festival ran 29th August to 8th September, featuring Damien Chazelle’s First Man as the opening film; the same day the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Vanessa Redgrave; the second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to David Cronenberg on 6th September. Honours went also to Bob Murawski (Premio Campari Passion for Film) and Zhang Yimou (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award). The Golden Lion for Best Film went to Roma by Alfonso Cuarón, and the Orizzonti Award for Best Film to Kraben Rahu (Manta Ray) by Thai director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng. The 75th edition also featured the Venice Virtual Reality section at the Lazzaretto Vecchio island, the three Biennale College Cinema feature films, and the market activities of the Venice Production Bridge.
Stars on the red carpet included: Ryan Gosling, Jason Clarke, Joel and Ethan Coen, John C. Reilly, Jeff Goldblum, Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Thom Yorke, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Stacy Martin, Louis Garrel, Alessandro Borghi, Alessandro Gassmann, Micaela Ramazzotti, and Jasmine Trinca.
The 76th Venice Film Festival ran from 28 August to 7 September 2019: the first Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Pedro Almodóvar at the beginning of the festival. Further awards included the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award to director Costa-Gavras and the Campari Passion for Film Award to cinematographer Luca Bigazzi; the second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Julie Andrews. The festival as usual included the two main competitive sections, Venezia 76 and Orizzonti, and the three micro-budget feature-length films realised as part of the Biennale College Cinema; also from the College three short audio-visual works presented in the VR section, that was held as usual in the Lazzaretto Vecchio island featuring a line-up of 40 works made in Virtual Reality. A Special Event at the crossroads between cinema and visual arts took place on 3 September at the Teatro alle Tese in the Arsenale: director Tsai-Ming liang presented the restored version of Bu san (Goodbye Dragon Inn), a film that screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2003; this was followed by a live performance with Tsai titled Improvisations on the Memory of Cinema. The international jury was presided over by Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel. Joker by Todd Phillips won the Golden Lion for best film.
Among the stars on the red carpet were Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Kristen Stewart, Louis Garrel, Gael García Bernal, Joaquin Phoenix, Penélope Cruz, Jude Law, John Malkovich, Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Timothée Chalamet, Lily-Rose Depp, Julian Sands, Gong Li, Roger Waters, Johnny Depp, Donald Sutherland, and Mick Jagger.
In 2020 the 77th Venice Film Festival took place as planned, in spite of the global pandemic outbreak. The Festival opened on 2 September: seven artistic directors of the principal European film festivals attended the opening night in representation of the community of film festivals, intending to reassert the importance of the art of cinema as a sign of solidarity towards the global film industry which was hit hard by the pandemic, and their colleagues forced to cancel or postpone their festivals. The evening ended with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Tilda Swinton award ceremony.
This edition included four main sections that went live on the Lido: the two competitive sections, Venezia 77 and Orizzonti, the Out of Competition and Biennale College Cinema sections; the virtual reality section took place online, rebranded as Venice VR Expanded; the Venice Classics section was hosted as part of the programme of the festival Il Cinema Ritrovato, promoted by the Cineteca di Bologna, which took place from August 25 to 31 in Bologna.
This year’s awardees also included Abel Ferrara, who was presented the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award, and Terence Blanchard, the recipient of the Campari Passion for Film Award. On 8 September the second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to director Ann Hui.
The Venezia 77 international jury was chaired by Cate Blanchett: Nomadland by Chloé Zhao won the Golden Lion for best film.
Celebrities on the Lido included Pedro Almodóvar, Stacy Martin, Benoît Magimel, Pierfrancesco Favino, Vanessa Kirby, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Christopher Abbott, Donatella Finocchiaro, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Stefano Accorsi, Valeria Golino, and Maya Sansa.
Despite the challenges posed by the global pandemic, the Festival took place in 2021 as planned from 1-11 September. The opening night featured the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Roberto Benigni and the screening of the new film Madres paralelas by the 2019 recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Pedro Almodóvar. This edition introduced a new non-competitive section, Orizzonti Extra, that screened eight features voted by viewers for the new Audience Award. The line-up included as usual the sections Venezia 78 Competition, Out of Competition, Orizzonti Competition, and Biennale College Cinema; Venice VR Expanded presented audio-visual works that were experienced by the public at Lido, online, and in the Satellite Venues hosted by 14 cultural organisations in 10 countries.
This edition awarded Marcus Rowland (Campari Passion for Film), Ridley Scott (Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award), and the second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Jamie Lee Curtis. The international jury was chaired by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho: the Golden Lion for Best Film was awarded to Audrey Diwan’s L’événement.
Among the stars who attended the 2021 edition: Penélope Cruz, Benedict Cumberbatch, Isabelle Huppert, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Dakota Johnson, Alba Rohrwacher, Toni Servillo, Jimmy Page, Jessica Chastain, Antonio Banderas, Silvio Orlando, Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Cécile de France, Kate Hudson, Valeria Golino, Jasmine Trinca, Claudio Santamaria, Elio Germano, Vincent Lindon, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck.
The 79th Festival took place from 31 August to 10 September 2022: on the opening night, Catherine Deneuve was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Paul Schrader on 3 September. After the two-year pandemic, the Festival resumed several of its normal features: the eagerly awaited red carpet was visible again for fans and the public; the full seating capacity was available in all screening theatres; and the virtual reality Venice Immersive section returned to the Lazzaretto Vecchio island. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, represented by the new CEO Bill Kramer, attended the Venice Film Festival for the first time.
In 2022 the Festival celebrated its 90th anniversary, as the first edition was held in 1932: an exhibition on that historic event was inaugurated at Ca’ Giustinian on 8 July, featuring the posters and documents of the Biennale’s Archive. A remarkable book by Gian Piero Brunetta was published on the 90-year history of the Festival; and a book on the 10-year activities of the Biennale College Cinema, the project that produced 83 new audiovisual works from 48 countries.
The international Jury chaired by Julianne Moore awarded the Golden Lion for best film to All the Beauty and the Bloodshed by Laura Poitras.
The stars who walked on the carpet on the Lido included Catherine Deneuve, Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Sigourney Weaver, Brendar Fraser, Sadie Sink, Penélope Cruz, Harry Styles, Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton, Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Kayije Kagame, Casey Affleck, Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Claudia Pandolfi, Silvio Orlando, Valerio Mastandrea, and Monica Bellucci.
