The 65th Venice International Film Festival, organised by the Venice Biennale, will take place at Venice Lido from August 27th to September 6th 2008. The aim of the Festival is to encourage the awareness and the promotion of all the various aspects of international cinema as art, entertainment and industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance.

Marco Müller will be the director of this edition, continuing the work he began in 2004.


The line-up of the 65th Venice Film Festival includes the following sections:

Venezia 65: an international competition of feature films, presented as world premieres and running for the Golden Lion

Out of Competition: important works of the year, and in particular those by directors already established in past editions of the Festival

Orizzonti: a section aiming to provide an overview of new trends in cinema

Corto Cortissimo: an international competition of short films (not exceeding 30 minutes)

These Phantoms: Italian Cinema Rediscovered (1946-1975): a new series of retrospective screenings and restorations



In addition to the official selection, there are two autonomous and collateral sections:

International Critics’ Week: a series of seven or eight films –debut works– independently organized by a commission nominated by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) in accordance with its own regulations

Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days: a series of 10-12 films independently organized by a commission nominated by the Italian Association of Film-makers (ANAC - Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici) and by the Association of Independent Directors and Producers (API - Associazione Autori e Produttori Indipendenti) in accordance with their own regulations

Films in competition:
Darren Aronofsky The Wrestler – USA, 105‘

Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood



Guillermo Arriaga The Burning Plain – USA, 147’

Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, Joaquim de Almeida



Pupi Avati Il papà di Giovanna – Italy, 104’

Silvio Orlando, Alba Rohrwacher, Francesca Neri, Ezio Greggio, Serena Grandi



Marco Bechis BirdWatchers – Italy / Brazil, 108’

Claudio Santamaria, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Chiara Caselli, Abrisio Da Silva Pedro



Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic L’Autre – France, 97’

Dominique Blanc, Cyril Gueï, Peter Bonke, Christèle Tual



Kathryn Bigelow Hurt Locker – USA, 131’

Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse, Jeremy Renner



Pappi Corsicato Il seme della discordia – Italy, 85’

Caterina Murino, Alessandro Gassman, Martina Stella, Michele Venitucci, Isabella Ferrari



Jonathan Demme Rachel Getting Married – USA, 116‘

Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, Rosemarie Dewitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe



Haile Gerima Teza – Ethiopia / Germany / France, 140’

Aron Arefe, Abiye Tedla, Takelech Beyene



Aleksey German Jr. Bumažnyj soldat (Paper Soldier) – Russia, 116’

Chulpan Khamatova, Merab Ninidze, Anastasya Shevelyova



Semih Kaplanoglu Süt – Turkey / France / Germany, 102‘

Melih Selcuk, Basak Koklukaya
Takeshi Kitano Akires to kame (Achilles and the Tortoise) – Japan, 119’

Beat Takeshi, Kanako Higuchi, Yurei Yanagi, Kumiko Aso



Hayao Miyazaki Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea) – Japan, 101’

animation



Amir Naderi Vegas: Based on a True Story – USA, 102‘

Mark Greenfield, Nancy La Scala, Zach Thomas



Mamoru Oshii The Sky Crawlers – Japan, 122’

animation



Ferzan Özpetek Un giorno perfetto – Italy, 95’

Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, Valerio Binasco, Nicole Grimaudo, Stefania Sandrelli



Christian Petzold Jerichow – Germany, 93’

Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann, Hilmi Sözer



Barbet Schroeder Inju, la Bête dans l’ombre – France, 105’

Magimel Benoît, Minamoto Lika, Shun Sugata, Maurice Bénichou, Ryo Ishibashi



Werner Schroeter Nuit de chien – France / Germany / Portugal, 110’

Pascal Greggory, Bruno Todeschini, Amira Casar, Jean-François Stevenin



Tariq Teguia Gabbla (Inland) – Algeria / France, 140’

Kader Affak, Ines Rose Djakou, Ahmed Benaïssa, Fethi Ghares, Kouider Medjahed, Djalila Kadi-Hanifi



YU Lik-wai Dangkou (Plastic City) – Brazil / China / Hong Kong/China / Japan, 118’

Joe Odagiri, Anthony Wong, Huang Yi, Jeff Chen