DIRECTOR'S CUT
2026

    • friday, 11 september 2026
    A Bit of Light is profoundly moving. Asgari tells the story of a physician whose clinic was ransacked by the Revolutionary Guards after he treated young demonstrators wounded in street protests. Unable to bear living in a country stripped of freedom, he resolves to end his life...
      • thursday, 10 september 2026
      I fell in love with this film the moment I saw it. It is exceptionally well written, in the grand tradition of French word-driven cinema, bringing Rohmer to mind. It is a generational film that questions what an eighteen-year-old boy can grasp about the struggles of our generation, looking back at the 1980s and 1990s...
        • wednesday, 9 september 2026
        Stéphane Brizé’s fourth film on the world of work confirms the director’s surgical precision in confronting its tensions and critical fractures. Featuring two performers of the caliber of Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon, Un bon petit soldat looks at a contemporary landscape marked by pervasive, widespread precarity, where labor once again becomes a battleground of power, domination, and subjugation...
          • tuesday, 8 september 2026
          Every year, everything becomes more complicated. We live in an increasingly difficult world and within an industry – that of cinema – marked by a structural crisis we now know all too well. There are production, financial, and distribution challenges. Traditional mechanisms have collapsed; major studios are struggling and have yet to figure out a way forward...

          DIRECTOR'S CUT
          2025

            • friday, 5 september 2025
            From 2012 onwards, we've witnessed a complete generational shift in the audience. Today, 70% of our passionate spectators are very young, ranging in age from 16 to 30, a truly impressive figure. To nurture this fresh, vibrant energy, we have implemented various promotional initiatives, such as low-cost accreditations for university students. Although it's often challenging, some of them even manage to find an accommodation in the city's hostels or student residences...
              • thursday, 4 september 2025
              An actress making her debut as a film director, Shu Qi spent about six years working on the screenplay for this film which is a clear tribute to her great masters, in particular to Wong Kar-wai...
                • wednesday, 3 september 2025
                There is undoubtedly a return to what we might call cinema of reality. Even fiction and auteur films are increasingly engaging with real events, contemporary life, and the major issues we face every day: wars, climate change, social tensions, discrimination, populism, authoritarianism...
                  • tuesday, 2 september 2025
                  We know Ali Asgari well from his previous works. After his last participation at Venice Festival, he is back with an astonishing film addressing the themes of rejecting the regime, censorship, and ideological oppression in Iran, his home country, a nation suffering under one of the most severe religious and political dictatorships of our time...

                  DIRECTOR'S CUT
                  2024

                    • thursday, 5 september 2024
                    I would like the public to understand the importance of the presence of twelve debuting directors in the Competition section out of twenty-one titles. It is important to see Siew Hua Yeo alongside Guadagnino, Dea Kulumbegashvili in the same section as Almodóvar...
                      • wednesday, 4 september 2024
                      One might have simply expected a continuation of the first chapter, picking up with Arthur Fleck/Phoenix confined in Arkham psychiatric prison, waiting for trial for the murders he confessed to on live TV. But the film is much, much more than this, completely unexpected and surprising. It could be described as a musical that takes unpredictable turns, a film that is both extremely brave and tough, dark and radically pessimistic, with a very compelling Lady Gaga. I remember watching it in February at the Warner screening rooms in...
                        • tuesday, 3 september 2024
                        Guadagnino is a director who evolves from film to film, creating something different and unique every time, without repeating himself. The fact that he is a great director has been evident for some time, but I believe this is his most successful work. I regret that the film was cut from its original three and a quarter hours, because for once I found the length absolutely not excessive. Visually and stylistically bold, crazy and outrageous...

                        DIRECTOR'S CUT
                        2024

                          • thursday, 5 september 2024
                          I would like the public to understand the importance of the presence of twelve debuting directors in the Competition section out of twenty-one titles. It is important to see Siew Hua Yeo alongside Guadagnino, Dea Kulumbegashvili in the same section as Almodóvar...
                            • wednesday, 4 september 2024
                            One might have simply expected a continuation of the first chapter, picking up with Arthur Fleck/Phoenix confined in Arkham psychiatric prison, waiting for trial for the murders he confessed to on live TV. But the film is much, much more than this, completely unexpected and surprising. It could be described as a musical that takes unpredictable turns, a film that is both extremely brave and tough, dark and radically pessimistic, with a very compelling Lady Gaga. I remember watching it in February at the Warner screening rooms in...
                              • tuesday, 3 september 2024
                              Guadagnino is a director who evolves from film to film, creating something different and unique every time, without repeating himself. The fact that he is a great director has been evident for some time, but I believe this is his most successful work. I regret that the film was cut from its original three and a quarter hours, because for once I found the length absolutely not excessive. Visually and stylistically bold, crazy and outrageous...

                              DIRECTOR'S CUT
                              2023

                                • friday, 8 september 2023
                                Kobieta Z… (Woman of) by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert is truly courageous precisely because it revolves around Poland. However, it is not a militant or declaratory film; it is more like a melodrama that prioritizes the feelings, frustrations, desires...
                                  • thursday, 7 september 2023
                                  There is a strong sense of pride in being the first in the world to have created an event that did not exist before, and in continuing throughout our history to introduce innovations and structural changes that have been imitated by others. Venice has always set the pace in terms of research, a living laboratory...
                                    • wednesday, 6 september 2023
                                    There are six Italian films in the main competition. There had not been this many since 1982. It happened because something changed in the Italian movie industry, and the change was mostly driven by investments. We were used of thinking of Italian production as needing a budget around €8-9m...
                                      • tuesday, 5 september 2023
                                      The section Venice Classics has grown into a way for classic cinema to reach younger audiences, who are today the majority of the VFF’s attendees and who never had the chance to see these films properly. They probably watched some degraded version on YouTube—we can barely call that ‘watching a movie’. We want these younger generations to understand the importance and the beauty...

                                      DIRECTOR'S CUT
                                      2022

                                        • friday, 9 september 2022
                                        About Jafar Panahi – those who saw his film say it is his best in the last several years, the most accomplished and aesthetically impressive. This is Panahi’s fourth film produced while underground. By the way, this shows clearly the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, who prevent Panahi to travel outside of...
                                          • wednesday, 7 september 2022
                                          In 2011, Savina Neirotti had been invited at the IFP-Independent Filmmaker Project Film Week. Those meetings went by one word: micro-budget. Funding was so scarce that many filmmakers had to resort to...
                                            • tuesday, 6 september 2022
                                            The absence of China, save for a couple entries, is certainly conspicuous. The main reason, aside from the pandemic, is censorship. It may be sly, underhanded, but it is strong. Unwanted filmmakers are prevented from obtaining the necessary funds to...
                                              • sunday, 4 september 2022
                                              The section grew even bigger – physically, too. It will take up every building in the Lazzaretto Vecchio island, with one section devoted to the VR market, which is a new addition. It all takes place on the island, over 2500 square metres housing impressive...
                                              VENEZIA NEWS #313-314

                                              VeNewsletter

                                              Ogni settimana / Every week

                                              il meglio della programmazione culturale di Venezia / the best of Venice's cultural life

                                              VENEZIA NEWS #313-314

                                              VeNewsletter

                                              Ogni settimana

                                              il meglio della programmazione culturale
                                              di Venezia