65th Venice International Film Festival - About The 65th Edition of Festival

About The 65th Edition of Festival

The festival opened on August 27, 2008, with the highly anticipated film directed by the Coen brothers, Burn After Reading. Burn is not running in the official competition and thus is ineligible to win any prizes, but reaction in Venice will indicate whether Joel and Ethan Coen can repeat their success of 2008 with the Academy Award-winning Venice entry, No Country For Old Men.

Unlike the Cannes Film Festival, American filmmakers have only twice won the coveted prize at Venice (with the majority of prizes going to European or Asian filmmakers over the past 65 years). It is also famine for British films, as none were selected for competition in this year's festival. Despite the dearth of English-speaking films, several films at the fest are likely to make a splash at this year's Oscars in Hollywood. A trend has been that several films launched in Venice have gone on to garner multiple Academy Award nominations. In 2005, Taiwan-born director Ang Lee's film, Brokeback Mountain earned its director a Best Director Oscar. Lee has won the top prize at Venice twice in the past few years.

The glamour of the Venice Film Festival (attended by many high profile stars) as well as the link with the upcoming Academy Awards has helped raise the Venice Film Festival's profile. Nonetheless, the event has a long-established reputation for showcasing emerging cinema, including films from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and this year's lineup proves the same.

Festival organizers have announced that the fest's shorts competition will kick off September 1 with Natalie Portman's directorial debut, Eve. Rising Russian star Kseniya Rappoport will also host the opening and closing ceremonies.

German independent film director Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire) will head the Venice film jury.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the Venice Film Festival will not be without its drama if the water-taxi drivers have any say:

"On the eve of the festival, Venice's water-taxi drivers were threatening to go on strike... The city's deputy mayor, Michele Vianello, at first responded in "make-my-day" mode, telling them to go right ahead, a sentiment shared by most of Venice's inhabitants, the vast majority of whom use public water buses and would only consider taking one of these astronomically expensive private conveyances for weddings, funerals, or if they won the lottery. Vianello subsequently declared the strike illegal, but if it goes ahead, ordinary festivalgoers may find themselves traveling with the stars (the Lido can only be reached by boat)."

The festival will close on September 6, 2008.

This year's Venice Film Festival's film selections had been widely criticized as being among the weakest in years, with some publications even describing it as the "worst ever". Later showings made It improve from bad to better, but it might have been too late.

The 65th Venice International Film Festival will be dedicated to the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. Chahine who died recently at age 82, was a notable in post-war Arab cinema. Festival director Marco Mueller said, "Who else could have succeeded in mixing the philosopher Averroes with Fred Astaire? That's what cinema should be about", Mueller said, referring to Chahine's film "Destiny".