Venice Film Festival 2008

26 August 2008

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The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival, as well as one of the most prestigious alongside Cannes and Berlin, and this year it celebrates it's 65th birthday.The festival, held in Lido, Venice, Italy, is one of the most high profile showcases of European movies and talent alongside the likes of Berlin and Venice.

It gives lesser known directors and actors the chance to premiere their work as well as welcoming the high profile movies and stars.

In recent years the intense media coverage that is given to the festival has attracted many A-List stars to France to premiere their Hollywood blockbuster on a more global stage.

However this year it seems that Hollywood has very much been overlooked at this year's Venice Film Festival in favour of European filmmakers as only five of the twenty one competition pictures come from America as the likes of Teriq Teguia, Pupi Avati and Pierre Trividia all make the list for the Golden Lion.

Alongside the U.S. and European directing talent there is a strong contingent of Japanese filmmaker including animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki, who is previewing his new movie Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea.

All the in competition pictures will be fighting it out for the Golden Lion, the highest prize given at the festival for Best Picture.

Introduced in 1949 the Golden Lion has gone on to be considered one of the film industry's most distinguised prizes.

Also alongside the in competition pictures are a string of out of competition movies, many of which are getting their world premiers and the film opens with the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The festival opens on 27th August and the winner will be announced on 6th September.

View a preview of In Competition Pictures.

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