The Venice Film Festival makes its
comeback from the COVID emergency that kept many stars away last
year by opening Wednesday night in the presence of President
Sergio Mattarella and with Life Is Beautiful star Roberto
Benigni getting a career Golden Lion.
The world's oldest film fest will run until September 11 when a
jury chaired by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho will give the
best of the 21 films in competition the coveted Golden Lion that
last year went to Oscar winner Nomadland.
Presenter and actress Serena Rossi will on Wednesday night
introduce the director and star of the opening film Madres
Paralelas, Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino's latest film, E' Stata
la Mano di Dio' (It Was the Hand of God), is among five Italian
movies that will be in the running for the Golden Lion.
The others are Mario Martone's 'Qui Rido Io', Gabriele
Mainetti's 'Freaks Out', Michelangelo Frammartino's 'Il buco'
and 'America Latina,' a thriller by brothers Fabio and Damiano
D'Innocenzo.
Sorrentino's 2013 film La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) won
the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award for Best
Foreign Language Film.
E' Stata La Mano di Dio is his first semi-autobiographical work.
Benigni, in accepting the lifetime achievement award when it was
announced earlier this year, stated, "My heart is full of joy
and gratitude. It is an immense honor to receive such an
important recognition of my work from the Venice International
Film Festival."
His film La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful, 1997), which he
wrote and directed, received the 1998 Grand Prize of the Jury at
the Cannes Film Festival and in 1999, of the seven Oscar
nominations the movie received, it won Oscars for Best Foreign
Language Film and Best Actor (as well as Best Music, awarded to
Nicola Piovani).
Bong, the jury chair from South Korea, is an Academy
Award-winning director and screenwriter, and one of the most
original voices in contemporary film. He is the author of
milestones in Korean cinema such as Memories of Murder (2003),
The Host (2006) and Mother (2009). He won definitive
international consecration in 2019 for Parasite, winner of a
long series of prestigious acknowledgments including the Golden
Palm at Cannes, a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award, two
BAFTA and four Oscars© for Best Film, Best International Feature
Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The other members of the jury are Saverio Costanzo, Italian
director and screenwriter; Virginie Efira, Belgian actress;
Cynthia Erivo, British actress and singer;
Sarah Gadon, Canadian actress; Alexander Nanau, Romanian-German
documentary director; and
Chloé Zhao, Chinese director and screenwriter.
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