69th Venice International Film Festival


The 69th annual Venice International Film Festival, organized by Venice Biennale, took place at Venice Lido from 29 August to 8 September 2012. The festival opened with the Indian director Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and closed with the Out of Competition film The Man Who Laughs, directed by Jean-Pierre Ameris. Terrence Malick's film To the Wonder was met with both boos and cheers from critics at its premiere.
The Golden Lion for Best Film was won by Pietà, directed by South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk. Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master won the Silver Lion for Best Director. Additionally, American actors Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman shared the prize for Best Actor for that film. Israeli actress Hadas Yaron for her performance in Fill the Void was selected as the Best Actress in the festival.

Jury

The international juries of the 69th Venice International Film Festival included:
Main competition
Horizons
Opera Prima

In Competition

The following eighteen films were selected for the main competition:

Out of Competition

The following films were selected for the out of competition section:

Horizons

The following films were selected for the Horizons section:

Venice Classics

The following selection of restored classic films and documentaries on cinema were screened for this section:

«80!»

The following rare films from the Biennale's Historical Archives were screened for this retrospective section:
TitleDirectorProduction country
Ahora te vamos a llamar hermano Raoul RuizChile
A Bagful of Fleas Vera ChytilováCzechoslovakia
The Brigand Renato CastellaniItaly
Dieu a besoin des hommes Jean DelannoyFrance
Free at Last Gregory Shuker, James Desmond, Nicholas ProferesUnited States
Gengis Khan Manuel Conde, Salvador LouPhilippines
The Last Night Julij Jakovlevic RajzmanSoviet Union
Mud-Covered City Václav TáborskýCzechoslovakia
Pagine chiuse Gianni Da CampoItaly
Stress Is Three Carlos SauraSpain

Special Screenings

The following films of the Official Selection were presented as Special Screenings:
TitleDirectorProduction country
Carmel Amos GitaiIsrael, France, Italy
Convitto Falcone Pasquale ScimecaItaly
Hommage to Simone Massi Simone MassiItaly

Autonomous sections

Venice International Film Critics' Week

The following films were selected for the Critics' Week:

Venice Days

The following films were selected for the Venice Days section:

Awards

Official selection

The following Official Awards were conferred at the 69th edition:
In Competition
Horizons
Special Awards'''
The following official and collateral awards were conferred to films of the autonomous sections:
Venice International Film Critics' Week
Venice Days
The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the official selection:
The jury led by filmmaker Michael Mann originally was to award the top Golden Lion prize to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, along with the Silver Lion Best Director award and the Best Actor award. However, because of festival's new rule prohibiting pairing the Golden Lion with any other prizes, the jury was asked "to re-deliberate to remove" one of the awards for The Master, and the Golden Lion was awarded to Kim Ki-duk's Pietà instead. On the other hand, the jury was planned to award the Coppa Volpi for the Best Actress prize to Jo Min-su, who acted Jang Mi-sun in Pietà. However, because of the festival's new rule, the jury couldn't award a prize to Jo Min-su. In the official reception which was held after the festival was over, many juries, such as Samantha Morton and Peter Chan met Jo, saying that "Jo's acting was touching that changed my life. I shed tears of Jo's play."