66th Venice International Film Festival 66th Venice International Film Festival The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was "Baarìa" by Giuseppe Tornatore and the closing film was "Chengdu, I Love You" by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian. The international competition jury, chaired by Ang Lee, awarded the Golden Lion to "Lebanon" by Samuel Maoz. The international juries of the 66th Venice International Film Festival were composed as follows: Main competition (Venezia 66) Horizons (Orizzonti) Opera Prima ("Luigi de
74th Venice International Film Festival 74th Venice International Film Festival The 74th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2017. The jury president was announced as the actress Annette Bening on 5 July 2017. "Downsizing", directed by Alexander Payne, was selected to open the festival. The Golden Lion. the highest prize given by the festival, was awarded to "The Shape of Water", directed by Guillermo Del Toro. A new section for virtual-reality (VR) films was introduced in this edition of the festival, as part of the Official Selection. 22 films were selected for the first-ever competition for films made