An array of film personalities - like Toni Servillo, David Cronenberg, Rithy Panh, Jonas Carpignano, Adriano Panatta, Donpasta, Marina Abramovic and Anne de Carbuccia, Jasmine Trinca and Luca Marinelli, Mario Martone (SIAE Creativity Award), Alexander Kluge, Michele Riondino, Carolina Crescentini, Ramin Bahrani and Luigi Lo Cascio, and of course this year's winners Claire Burger, Valerio Mieli, and Sudabeh Mortezai - went into the making of Giornate degli Autori 2018, now celebrating its first fifteen years, and officially entering adolescence. In such marvelous company, we miss all the more one name always by our side at the Venice Film Festival over the years: Teresa Mangiacapre, tireless organizer of initiatives in honor of her sister Lina, and who would have felt gratified by the success showered on female directors at Venice.
The numbers for Giornate 2018 attest to its success, as measured by the turnout for the screenings (over 7,500 festivalgoers in attendance, with many screenings sold out and a 6% increase to report, reflecting a positive trend for all Venice Film Festival sections), but also seen in the vitality and hospitality of our venue, the Villa degli Autori: its lineup of events included 18 talks and tributes over 11 convivial and dialogue-packed days and nights, with 25 events hosted and arranged by GdA for 30 feature-length and short films, including the 5 first films on the roster and an abundance of titles by women filmmakers.
A great story, one that has been told in our official gallery (over 200 photos published starting from 4,500 shots, including the amusing sequence of 60 "boxers" who paraded past our backdrop wearing their fighting red boxing gloves), and shines through the comments on Facebook and Instagram (which have grown exponentially, over 97% more than last year). And thanks to the efforts of I Club and Tino eventi, all this translated into 360 bottles of Prosecco uncorked, and 720 bottles of beer. The Villa's guests and audiences downed over 3,000 cups of coffee and 3,250 bottles of mineral water at our cocktail hours, dinners and parties.
"Not that such figures even start to describe what our showcase is all about, obviously," says Giorgio Gosetti, "but they do reveal the spirit of our program, which is really something different, and has been made possible thanks to the efforts of so many, including the associations of Italian filmmakers (ANAC and 100autori above all).
"What we bring to the Venice Film Festival," Gosetti goes on, "is the intelligence we put on display: filmmakers who have moved from being promising to established players; the voices of diverse cultures from afar; directors courageously striking out in new directions; and at times, in the case of film legends, master filmmakers reinventing themselves. What Giornate adds to the marvelous canvas of the Venice Film Festival is the spice of life, diversity, starting with the events hosted by the Villa degli Autori for artists and other figures working in film the world over. Moreover, we respect and defend the principles of copyright presently under fire right in the European Parliament, which should be their champions yet could still be deaf to the artists' pleas in a few days, on September 12. We have dedicated this edition of Giornate to these rights as well, and we'll keep fighting for them using our own arms of entertainment, independence, and passion."
