Bernardo Bertolucci to head Venice Film Festival jury

Director Bernardo Bertolucci will chair Venice’s (28 August – 7 September) international competition jury this year.

It will be the second time the Oscar-winning director will chair the jury, having also assumed the role in 1883.

“Very few directors can claim a lifetime experience so passionately committed to contemporary cinema like Bertolucci’s”, said festival director Alberto Barbera.

“His work has explored with insatiable curiosity the world around us and the ever evolving language of film, discovering and bringing to our attention what’s most vital and beautiful. Such commitment to “the present” is one of the finest services that cinema can render to itself and is one of the many reasons why Bertolucci is the ideal jury president.”

“I cheerfully accept to chair the jury of the 70th Venice International Film Festival,” stated Bertolucci. “Over a handful of days, I am being given the opportunity to see the most interesting work being done in filmmaking around the world. My friend and film buff Alberto Barbera has the knack of discovering the most mysterious niches of filmmaking in the most mysterious countries in the world.”

“This is my second time,” he continued. “In 1983 the Venice Film Festival was celebrating its 40th edition. My jury, composed almost entirely of directors, could not help but award the Golden Lion to Jean-Luc Godard, to whom we all owed so much and who had never won an important prize in his life. At the time what I wanted from films was surprise and enjoyment. I haven’t changed much since then”.

Bertolucci’s glittering career includes titles The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers. He was awarded a career Golden Lion at Venice in 2007.