Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival, annual film festival held in September in Venice, Italy. Founded by the propaganda ministry of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1932 as part of the Venice Biennale, the event is the world's oldest international film festival and one of the most prestigious. The programme typically presents a competitive selection of around 50 films, all released exclusively in their country of origin and not entered in any other European festival. Internationally renowned for maintaining rigorous artistic standards, the Venice festival awards some of the film industry's most distinguished prizes, especially the Golden Lion award for best film.

The Venice festival has always been influenced by politics and has consistently promoted Italian cinema. But the festival has also endeavoured to resist the orthodox nationalism of its Fascist roots, often championing films from abroad rather than local favourites. By awarding Akira Kurosawa the Golden Lion award for Rashomon in 1951, festival programmers began a long-standing tradition of non-partisan judging, particularly with regard to films from Asia. Golden Lion awards presented to film-makers such as Indian director Satyajit Ray in 1957 for Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Chinese director Ts’ai Ming-Liang in 1994 for Aiqing Wansui (Vive l'Amour) have been important milestones in the careers of previously unheralded directors.

Over the years the Venice festival's focus on presenting films of high artistic merit has prevented it from acquiring the commercial atmosphere of the Cannes Film Festival or the Berlin International Film Festival, but it has also lent the festival an air of exclusivity. Gillo Pontecorvo, festival director from 1992 to 1996, attempted to combat this reputation by ending the traditional exclusion of Hollywood films from the programme.