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 in years, with some publications even describing it as the "worst ever". Later showings made It improve from bad to better, but it might have been too late. The 65th Venice International Film Festival will be dedicated to the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. Chahine who died recently at age 82, was a notable in post-war Arab cinema. Festival director Marco Mueller said, "Who else could have succeeded in mixing the philosopher Averroes with Fred Astaire? That's what cinema should be about", Mueller said, referring to Chahine's film "Destiny". Of the 52 films selected to screen at this year's Venice