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
65th Venice International Film Festival Algerian helmer Tariq Teguia is screening "Inland". Asia could win the Golden Lion for best film for the fourth year running. Leading the Japanese line-up is "Akires to kame" (Achilles and the Tortoise) directed by Takeshi Kitano. Kitano is a favored son in Venice, having already won the 1997 Leone d'Oro for "Hana-bi" (Fireworks) and who was awarded a special prize for his direction of "Zatoichi" in 2003. Films being screen out of competition include "35 Rums" by French director Claire Denis, Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami's film, "Shirin" and an autobiographical documentary by Belgium-born director Agnès Varda. The "record" for