One of the brightest and most significant events in world cinema is the Venice Festival. This is the very first cinematic forum, which has been held since 1932. Then it was just a part of the 18th Venice Biennale, and its program was not competitive - the audience was simply shown new films released at film studios in different countries. But the next festival, which took place two years later, was already of a competitive nature, and since then it has been the most prestigious film event in Europe.
The Venice Festival takes place every year in late August or early September. The venue is the Cinema Palace, located on the island of Lido near Venice. In 2012, this event was held for the 69th time. Traditionally, its program consists of a main competition, a competition for documentaries and fiction films, in which new cinematographic directions - "Horizons" are used, a competition for short films and out-of-competition screenings.
The premiere films for the main competition are selected by a panel of experts led by the director of the film festival. The condition of their showing is the absence of preliminary broadcasts. The selected tapes are judged by a jury consisting of 7-8 reputable people in the world of cinema - directors, actors, producers. The film, recognized as the winner of the film festival, receives a prize - a stylized statuette "Golden Lion". The best director awaits "Silver Lion", and the actor and actress, recognized as winners, will be awarded the Volpi Cup.
At the Venice Festival, the Marcello Mastroianni Special Prize recognizes the best young male and female performers, while the best screenplay and technical special effects receive the Osella Prize. Traditionally, one of the oldest actors or directors can count on a special prize of the festival jury for their contribution to the world cinema.
The jury will award another prize to the debut film presented in the independent film category and in the main competition. Films that have already been released in the last year can also take part in the festival, but they are shown only as part of an out-of-competition program. In 2007, a new nomination appeared at the festival - "Blue Lion", which became a prize for films on a homosexual theme. Since 2009, a separate award has been given to the best 3-D film.
According to the results of the 69th Venice Film Festival, the "Golden Lion" went to the Korean director Kim Ki-Dooku for the film "Pieta". Director Paul Thomas Andersen received the Silver Lion for The Master, the acting duet from this film Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman received the Volpi Cup for two, for the female role this award was given to Israeli actress Hadas Yaron. The special jury prize went to Ulrich Seidl for the film “Paradise. Vera”, the prize of Marcello Mastroianni was taken from Venice by the young Italian actor Fabrizio Falco.
