the Jury will award the Golden Lion and other official prizes at the 70th Venice Film Festival (28 August > 7 September 2013)

Bernardo Bertolucci has been selected to chair the International Jury for the Competition of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (28 August – 7 September 2013), which will award the Golden Lion and other official prizes.

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta, on the recommendation of Alberto Barbera, the Director of the Venice Film Festival.

“Very few directors can claim a lifetime experience so passionately committed to contemporary cinema like Bertolucci’s. His work has explored with insatiable curiosity the world around us and the ever evolving language of film, discovering and bringing to our attention what’s most vital and beautiful. Such commitment to “the present” is one of the finest services that cinema can render to itself and is one of the many reasons why Bertolucci is the ideal Jury President” stated the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera. “I am delighted he has generously accepted this delicate and important role”.

“I cheerfully accept to chair the jury of the 70th Venice International Film Festival. – stated Bernardo Bertolucci – Over a handful of days, I am being given the opportunity to see the most interesting work being done in filmmaking around the world. My friend and film buff Alberto Barbera has the knack of discovering the most mysterious niches of filmmaking in the most mysterious countries in the world.

This is my second time. In 1983 the Venice Film Festival was celebrating its 40th edition. My jury, composed almost entirely of directors, could not help but award the Golden Lion to Jean-Luc Godard, to whom we all owed so much and who had never won an important prize in his life. At the time what I wanted from films was surprise and enjoyment. I haven't changed much since then”.

Bernardo Bertolucci can be considered the most famous working Italian director in the world, and one of the most influential in the history of the cinema.

On the most significant anniversaries of the Venice Film Festival – such as the 70th edition this year – Bertolucci has always been close to one of the oldest of all the film festivals. In 1983 Bertolucci was the President of the Jury for the Competition of the 40th edition of the Venice Film Festival, which awarded the Golden Lion to Prénom Carmen by Jean-Luc Godard. In 2003, at the 60th edition of the Venice Film Festival, he presented The Dreamers. In 2007 he was attributed the Golden Lion of the 75th, an award instituted to celebrate the Venice Film Festival’s 75th anniversary (from its first edition in 1932).

Bertolucci made his debut as a director in Venice with The Grim Reaper (La commare secca, 1962), and the year before he had been at the Venice Film Festival as the assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini’s directorial debut in Accattone (1961). Subsequently, other important works by Bertolucci had their world premiere screenings at the Lido: Partner (1968), The Spider’s Stratagem (Strategia del ragno, 1970), Luna (La luna, 1979) and, as mentioned earlier, The Dreamers (2003). In 2011 Bertolucci presented the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Marco Bellocchio.

His prestigious filmography has won Bertolucci awards and acclaim at the major film festivals. He established an unparalleled record for a European film when The Last Emperor (L’ultimo imperatore, 1987) won 9 Oscars, and became the first and only Italian film to win the Oscar for Best Director.

His most recent masterpiece, Me and You(Io e te, 2012) won high acclaim from the critics and public alike at the Cannes Film Festival, which in 2011 awarded Bertolucci the Honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement. Me and You won the Silver Ribbon for the year 2013 from the Sindacato Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani.

On the closing night of the coming 70th Venice Film Festival (7 September 2013), the international Jury of Venezia 70, chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci and composed of a total of 9 key figures in the cinema and culture of various countries, will award the following official prizes to the feature-length films in Competition:

– Golden Lion for Best Film

– Silver Lion for Best Director

– Grand Jury Prize

– Special Jury Prize (a new award)

– Coppa Volpi for Best Actor

– Coppa Volpi for Best Actress

– Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

– Award for Best Screenplay

There will be no joint winners, with the sole exceptions of the two Coppa Volpi awards and the Marcello Mastroianni award. Furthermore, individual films may receive no more than one of the awards mentioned in the Regulations. However, in exceptional cases and after consultation with the Festival Director, the Jury may confer the Coppa Volpi and Marcello Mastroianni awards to actors or actresses featured in films which have won the Silver Lion, the Grand Jury Prize, the Special Jury Prize or the Award for Best Screenplay.