The Venice Film Festival opens on August 27 with a comedy, but promises plenty of hot political fare over the next 11 days. German director Fatih Akin is one of 20 directors competing for the prestigious Golden Lion.
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Venice Film Festival highlights
Venice rolls out the red carpet for 11 days of films and celebrities. At the end of it all, the winners will come away with the coveted Golden and Silver Lions. German director Fatih Akin is among the favorites.
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The lion roars again
Eleven days of cinema and stars in Venice start on Wednesday, August 27. International celebrities and filmmakers come together for the 71st time at the world's oldest film festival, which runs through September 6. At the end, one director will go home with a Golden Lion. (Venice's city emblem also features the noble animal.) Fifty-five productions are on the official program.
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Promising premieres
Festival President Paolo Baratta (left) and Artistic Director Alberto Barbera have compiled an attractive program this year. Twenty films are competing for the top prize. In addition, a wide variety of top international films are on the line-up. The section "Venice Classics" will present 21 restored historical masterpieces.
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Akin tackles touchy subject
While German entries were conspicuously absent from the Cannes Film Festival in May, director Fatih Akin is representing Germany in Venice with "The Cut." The film deals with the Armenian genocide following World War I - a particularly controversial topic in Turkey. "The Cut" is a candidate for the Golden Lion.
Image: 71st Venice International Film Festival
Start with a laugh
Lighter fare is set to open the festival: "Birdman," by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The comedy is about a has-been film star - played by Michael Keaton (left) - who is fighting for a dignified end to his career. Since the top roles don't fall into his lap, he's forced to take second-class theater parts and tolerate narcissistic stage colleagues.
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Musical jury
The jury under the direction of film composer Alexandre Desplat will decide whether Fatih Akin, Gonzalez Inarritu or another filmmaker will take home the Golden Lion. Desplat has written scores for blockbusters like "The Girl with the Peal Earring," "Harry Potter" and "Grand Budapest Hotel." German director Philip Gröning, who won a prize at last year's Venice Film Festival, is also in the jury.
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Film from Russia
Russian films have been few and far between at the major film festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice. But this year in Venice, Andrei Konchalovski, one of Russia's most important directors, will be showing "The Postman's White Nights." The film is about a handful of people who live off the beaten path in a remote Russian province.
Image: 71st Venice International Film Festival
Politics from Hollywood
The Hollywood film "Good Kill" vies for the Golden Lion with a particularly current topic: modern warfare in the digital age. Ethan Hawke (pictured) plays a US pilot who specializes in drone activity in the Middle East. Over time, the soldier's work gnaws at his conscience and he questions the ethics of the war tactics he is implementing. New Zealand-born Andrew Niccol produced the anti-war film.
Image: 71st Venice International Film Festival
New and old in Venice
The world's major film festivals offer more than just big prizes. They also provide a platform for lesser-known international productions and honor cinematic tradition with retrospective series. Many festivals, like Venice, also include a trade fair, where the global film industry can buy and sell the latest products.
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Film on film
In Venice, the world of cinema is not only the focus of the opening production, but also of a documentary by Abel Ferrara. In "Pasolini," the American director depicts the last 24 hours in the life of Italian filmmaker Paolo Pasolini, played by Willem Dafoe, before he was killed. Fans of German film history can also look forward to the documentary "From Caligari to Hitler."
Image: 71st Venice International Film Festival
Recognition for documentaries
Last year, the Italian documentary "Sacro GRA" won the Golden Lion. This year, another documentary - Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence" - is included in the competition. Oppenheimer already has an Oscar in his collection, having won the coveted award this year for "The Act of Killing." His newest film covers genocide in Indonesia.
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Premieres and prizes
The winners of the Golden and Silver Lions will be disclosed on September 6. Jury decisions are often controversial - as was last year's documentary pick. The competing films are often too different to make an objection choice - but the juries are also made up of diverse personalities with different tastes.
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German director Fatih Akin, who was born in Hamburg to parents of Turkish descendent, is one of 20 directors presenting their new films at the Venice International Film Festival this year. Akin's film "The Cut" takes on a controversial topic: the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which is widely regarded as genocide.
"The Cut" tells the story of a young craftsman who gets separated from his family during the 1915 Armenian Massacres and embarks on a journey across the globe to find his daughter.
Akin tackles touchy topic
In an interview with Turkish-Armenian weekly "Agos," Akin said he feels that Turkey is ready for a film like "The Cut," even though the Armenian Massacres are not widely discussed in the country.
German director Fatih Akin competes at the Venice Film Festival for a Golden Lion this yearImage: Vanessa-Maas/bombero international
Akin, however, had to drop plans to make a film about murdered Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed in 2007 in a crime yet to be fully resolved. Akin couldn't find a Turkish actor who wanted to play the lead role of Hrant. Every single actor Akin approached felt the script was "too harsh" and Akin didn't want any actor to get hurt, as he told "Agos." "That's why I had to cancel the project," he said.
"The Cut" is just one of several political contributions competing for the Golden and Silver Lion at the oldest international film festival in the world, which runs from August 27 to September 6.
The French movie "Loin des homes" addresses the war in Algeria, while the American production "Good Kill" discusses modern warfare with drones. And the US movie "99 Homes" deals with real estate speculation and its consequences for average citizens.
International co-productions
A boy and his stray dog are portrayed in the film "Sivas"Image: 71st Venice International Film Festival
Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, and his team focused on productions from Europe this year. Numerous contributions from France and host country Italy are part of the program, but also movies from Sweden and Turkey as well as international co-productions made with European funds are on the agenda. Germany helped finance the new film by Swedish director Roy Andersson - "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" -, who is known for his satirical and surreal look at the world.
The film "Sivas" by Turkish director Kaan Müjdeci, who works and lives in Germany, is a Turkish-German co-production. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy and a stray dog in an Anatolian province. Apart from a focus on political topics, this year's Venice Film Festival also stands out through numerous films that are characterized by a melodramatic storyline.
In the film "Manglehorn," Hollywood star Al Pacino plays a man that can't get over a past love, while the Italian movie "Hungry Hearts" portrays a couple in New York whose relationship is put to the test by dramatic circumstances.
Film nations Iran and Russia represented
The Venice Film Festival also shows movies from countries that usually don't make the blockbuster lists, such as Iran and Russia. It gives these countries a chance to present themselves to global audiences and reporters.
"Birdman" deals with the life of a former movie starImage: 71st Venice International Film Festival
The Iranian film "Ghesseha" by director Rakhshan Bani-E'temad offers a broad panorama of Iran's modern society. Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky gives insight into a Russian province and the challenges people living far away from modern civilization have to deal with.
Although numerous dramas are on the line-up, the film festival opens with a comedy by Mexican star director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. In his film "Birdman," former Batman-star Michael Keaton plays a has-been film star who is fighting for a dignified end to his career. It's a movie about the world of making movies.
Director Abel Ferrara also competes with a film about movie making at the Venice Film Festival. "Passolini" depicts the last 24 hours in the life of Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini before he was killed.
Film composer as head of the jury
Philip Gröning received the prestigious prize last yearImage: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
In the end, the jury, headed by film composer Alexandre Desplat, will decide who will end up with the prestigious Golden Lion. By his side are two German-speaking directors: Austrian Jessica Haussner and her German colleague Philip Gröning.
Gröning himself received the special jury prize at last year's Venice Film Festival for his movie "The Police Officer's Wife." Now he can help decide who will bring home the Golden Lion this year. Before the start of the festival, Gröning said that winning a prize like the Golden Lion can be decisive for a director's career.
