Roberto Cicutto

We have said this many times over, but I willingly repeat it again for the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
La Biennale di Venezia experiences the transformations of history, thanks to its privileged point of observation onto the world of the arts at every latitude, perhaps more than any other cultural institution.

The Venice Film Festival, which attracts the attention of the media and audio-visual industry from around the world, has never been just a showcase for talents and films, it has also been a mirror of political, social and environmental criticalities, and has always responded in a timely manner through the direct and sometimes spontaneous commitment of those who participate.

If we were to list everything that has taken place in the world in just the past four years, there is not a single internationally significant event to which the Festival has not dedicated attention and sought answers to: from the Covid pandemic, to the Afghan crisis with the return to power of the Taliban, to the repression in Iran of women, citizens and artists committed to the struggle for freedom of women in particular and for human and civil rights, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the dramatic migration across the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Cinema, which is as old as the Biennale Arte itself (1895), with its audiences, while constantly evolving in terms of technology and language, has never abandoned its role as a witness to the past and to the present, as a visionary anticipating the future, as a narrator of the inner strength of men and women who rise to oppose injustice and abuse of power. 

This is the meaning we wish to give the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, which from the very day after it closes will embark on the next leg of the journey towards a future for which the screenplay has yet to be written.

I would like to thank all the institutions, the Ministry of Culture, the City of Venice, the Regione Veneto, the Superintendence for Archaeology, Fine Arts and the Landscape of the City of Venice and the Lagoon, and all those who contribute to the greater and secure success of the Venice Film Festival.

I would like to thank all the sponsors who support the 80th Film Festival.
The Main Sponsors Campari, Cartier, Mastercard and Armani Beauty. And Vivendi, Lexus, UPS, Moet&Chandon, Repower, Thelios, Major Events Media, Canon, and Radio Italia.

I would like to thank RAI, the Main and Host Broadcaster of the Venice Film Festival and Media Partner for La Biennale di Venezia.

I would like to thank the director Alberto Barbera and his entire staff.

And naturally the entire Biennale team, without whose professional contribution none of what we do would even exist.