18/05/2005

Giorgio Gosetti, director of the Venice Days which will take place for the second time on the famous Lido during the la Venice Film Festival, took advantage of the Cannes Film Festival to host a cocktail in the elegant ItaliaCannes05 lounge, at the Noga Hilton, and present the now international Venitian event. From now on, the twelve films selected for the Venice Days will include not only European films (running for the Europa Cinémas Label) but other productions from all over the world, a wider scope illustrated by the participation to the Netpac Prize of the Asian films shown during the Venice Days. First works will also run for the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize.

The Austrian director Hubert Sauper, whose documentary Darwin’s Nightmare premiered last year for the first Venice Days and won the Europa Cinémas Label, is very enthusiastic. ‘The Venice Days, he says, are not just a sub-section of the Mostra ; they are a proper parallel event, a unique opportunity for filmmakers to meet and exchange a lot. It made us feel special and close to one another.’ Indeed, filmmakers are all invited to share the Villa, right next to the Casino, and live like a family of people who share not only rooms, Sauper explains, but also a common passion. At the Venice Days, cinema is not seen like an industry ; ‘there, you don’t have to make an awful series of short meaningless interviews, the Austrian director adds, you are a family. For that matter, my family was there too. After all, that’s how it happens when a baby is born —all the family is there.’ These words are actually followed by a warm hand-shake between Sauper and his partner-in-crime, the Austrian co-producer of his film, Antonin Svoboda (Coop 99).
Svoboda accepted to tell Cineuropa more about his opinion on the Venice Days. For him, this is the only film event were art prevails over industry and glamour which often make it more difficult for small films to be given a chance. Darwin’s Nightmare was refused in Cannes because it did not ‘fit’ anywhere, but it is wrong to judge a film by how it ‘fits’, how ‘viable’ it is, says this committed and therefore unusual producer, adding, ‘Filmmakers need a harbour, not to worry about where the ship goes afterwards.’ A film like Darwin’s Nightmare, which took three years of passionate work, could not be cut or formatted in any way, ‘otherwise why put all this effort in making something genuine and personal !?’ At the Venice Days, what really counts is the film seen as a piece of art and as not a product.

Giorgio Gosetti announced also that a partnership was born between Cineuropa and the Days of the Authors. Cineuropa will present authors portraits, film profiles and extensive interviews.

The Venice Days, organised by the Italian Authors and Scriptwriters of the ANAC and the Independant Authors and Producers of the API, will take place from the 1st to the 10th of September.

(Translated from French)