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
Survival of the Dead sixth "Living Dead" film. The film was independently produced, and distributed by Artfire Pictures. It had a budget of four million USD. Romero shot the film in Port Dover, Ontario and in Toronto, Ontario with an entirely Canadian cast and crew. Romero cited the tax incentives as a reason to shoot in Toronto. The film was inspired by the 1958 William Wyler Western film "The Big Country". In September 2009 "George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead" was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival (where it screened for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion), Trinity