The 15th edition of Giornate degli Autori gets underway tomorrow (Sala Perla at 2:00 pm) with the new event movie by cinematic master Rithy Panh. Graves Without a Name, however, is not just a hotly-awaited title by one of today's great directors; it's a flag-bearer for the Giornate spirit: a meditation on memory; a highly personal, unique experience part documentary, part artistic reinvention; a universal proposal of reconciliation and faith in life that outweighs the horrors of death. Cinema at Giornate looks to the future, with no fear of reinventing itself, and no letting the past off lightly; it's cinema that more and more rings with women's voices (six out of twelve films in Giornate's official selection). And in fact our showcase's poster this year shows a female boxer in an evening gown, the muse behind the 2018 Giornate degli Autori, which wraps up, like the Venice Film Festival as a whole, on Saturday, September 8, after a marathon of screenings, talks at the Villa degli Autori, famous names along with figures who will take our guests by surprise, throughout the eleven days of the event.

A few figures for Giornate 2018: six first films in competition; seven special events, starting with the buzzworthy documentary by Peter Medak on Peter Sellers, a film that was never finished and believed to be lost; and the debut of a new initiative, a dialogue with personalities and their stories, figures who inventing the future today (almost a TED Talk), Happening Tomorrow. Then there are the two official awards (the GDA Director's Award for Best Film, assigned by an all-European jury headed by Italy's candidate for the Oscars, Jonas Carpignano; the BNL People's Choice Award promoted by the BNL - BNP Paribas Group; the daily lineup of events co-organized with SIAE to bring together Italian and foreign filmmakers in Venice; the Italian filmmakers' associations event devoted to copyright reform, on the eve of the vote on a new EU directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. Plus the 28 Times Cinema program, a joint effort with the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education; an evening event featuring Federico Zampaglione and Tiromancino; the five Venetian Nights at the Villa degli Autori; the fabled Miu Miu Women's Tales spearheading women's creativity; the Giornate's roster of prizes, including the Europa Cinemas Label, the SIAE Award and the new Hearst Film Award 2018 - Best Female Director, which honors an emerging female filmmaker on the Giornate lineup. And two tributes: one to the great documentarian Raymond Depardon, arranged in collaboration with Isola Edipo; and the other to Alexander Kluge, at Giornate with his new master-work, Happy Lamento. All in all, 29 films counting shorts, feature films and documentaries, and 25 public and private events at the Villa degli Autori.

"It's been exactly fifty years since 1968, the year Alexander Luge won the Golden Lion at Venice and all of Europe took to the streets for the May protests, and the world is a different place today. We wanted to avoid the commemorations," says Giornate director Giorgio Gosetti, "but we still wanted to find fresh meaning in the spirit of that storied season in time, with its youthful enthusiasm and engagement that changed history then and could change it again. And we do it using the tools of the cinematic art, drawing on the voices of newcomers and established filmmakers alike and on the solidarity and enthusiasm of so many individuals, all so Venice and its Festival, plus our own contribution, will once again prove to be a vibrant stage for the latest novelties in the arts: a date not to be missed, one that holds a mirror to a society and a country, Italy, where a different, better world can be dreamed of."