The 90th anniversary of the Venice International Film Festival
On Friday 8 July in Venice, in the Portego of Ca’ Giustinian, the inauguration took place of the exhibition titled The first Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica from the Archive of La Biennale di Venezia, which the Historical Archive of the Contemporary Arts (ASAC) organised to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Venice International Film Festival.
The exhibition at Ca’ Giustinian has illustrated and documented that first edition which took place from 6 to 21 August 1932 on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido di Venezia, under the name Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, before it changed to Mostra in 1934.
On exhibit – from materials preserved in the Historical Archive since 1932 – were the original posters and playbills of the programmes, still photos from the films that were shown, topical photos in the context of the Lido of the time, the documents and correspondence that testify to the origins and organisation of the Venice International Film Festival, the press releases and press reviews.
Among the materials is the letter, in which Louis Lumière, the father of cinema, agrees to be a member of the Honour Committee, the voting form for the audience to choose the best actress and best actor, as well as the directors of the most amusing, the most moving and the most original films and the film demonstrating the greatest technical perfection.
Additionally, documentaries from the Istituto Luce about Venice and the Lido of the time will be screened, along with a 30-minute film featuring a selection of scenes from the films presented at that first edition in 1932.
“The most noble and ideally warranted motivation underlying that successful and forward-looking first edition – observe the Past President of La Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and the Director of the Venice International Film Festival, Alberto Barbera – was to assert once and for all the artistic nature of cinema, a new medium that originated as something of a freak show only to quickly become established as the greatest and most popular form of entertainment for the masses, raising it to the level of dignity of the other Arts that La Biennale had dealt with up to that time.”