Venice celebrates the 90th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival
On July 8, Venice hosts the opening of the exhibition “The First Venice International Film Festival from the archives of La Biennale di Venezia.” The exhibition is organized by the Historical Archives of Contemporary Art (ASAC) in honor of the 90th anniversary of the Venice International Film Festival.
The project illustrates and documents the first festival, which took place from 6 to 21 August 1932 on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on Lido di Venezia under the name Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, before it was changed in 1934 to "Mostra" (Italian: "Mostra"). "review", "biennale").
The exhibition, drawn from materials stored in the Historical Archives since 1932, will feature original playbills and program posters, stills from films shown, current photographs in the context of the Lido of the time, documents and correspondence that testify to the origins and organization of the Venice Film Festival, press releases and press reviews.
Among the materials is a letter in which Louis Lumière, the “father” of cinema, agreed to be a member of the honorary committee of the show, as well as an audience voting form to select the best actress and best actor, the directors of the “funniest,” “most touching,” and “most original.” films and a film demonstrating "the greatest technical perfection."
The project will screen a documentary by the Istituto Luce about Venice and the Lido at the time, a film with a selection of scenes from films presented at the first film festival in 1932.
According to the President of the Venice Film Festival Roberto Cicutto and the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera, “... the idea of the show was to affirm once and for all the artistic nature of cinema, a new medium that arose as something of a “freak show”, but quickly established itself as the greatest and most popular entertainment for the masses, raising it to the level of dignity of other arts with which the Biennale had been concerned up to that time.”
Source: Venice Film Festival press release
