71st Venice International Film Festival

Venice, the world’s oldest and most elegant film festival, reached the age of 71, this year. The Festival, attached to the Venice Biennale, contained 55 features, selected from no less than 1,700 submissions. The competition section of 20 films was augmented by a Critics Week, the experimental Orizzonti selection and an expanding European Market. Though it takes place on the Lido, many of the films are repeated in Venice itself and a large number of students are invited to join the gathering of international critics and ordinary members of the public. There are screening in seven auditoriums, including the famous Sala Grande. Venice is the last of the three major European festivals after Berlin in February, and Cannes in May. It has the reputation of fostering artistic rather than commercial films but still attracts well-known stars and directors from all over the world. For the past three years it has been directed by Alberto Barbera, who returned to Venice in 2012 after a ten-year absence (Derek Malcolm).

Venice International Fim Festival: www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/