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VENICE: The Venezia 81 Jury, chaired by Isabelle Huppert, gave the Golden Lion for Best Film to The Room Next Door the first English language film by Pedro Almodóvar, while the Orizzonti Jury chaired by Debra Granik awarded the Romanian/Serbian coproduction The New Year That Never Came by Bogdan Mureșanu with the Award for Best Film.

VENICE: The parade of big stars on the Venice red carpet continued throughout the festival despite a furnace-like heat wave in the first days of the festival and a torrential rain storm that turned the red carpet gala into puddles on Thursday night.

VENICE: The Venice Film Festival sidebar Venice Days screened the film The Antique / Antikvariati by Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze after an earlier decree of the Italian court over a dispute over the copyright to the screenplay by the coproducers of the film was overturned.

VENICE: Hungarian artists and technical craftsmanship is on full display this year in Venice with two films that have recently been shot in Hungary in the main competition, Maria directed by Pablo Larraín and The Brutalist directed by Brady Corbet.

VENICE: The first feature film by Romanian writer/director/producer Bogdan Mureșanu, The New Year That Never Came, which premiered in the Horizons competition of the 81st Venice FF on 1 September 2024, has been sold by Cercamon in France to Memento Distribution. The film is a Romanian/Serbian coproduction.

FNE asked Slovak Péter Kerekes about being back in Venice again after his 2021 win for best screenplay together with Ivan Ostrochovský for 107 Mothers, and why his latest film Wishing on a Star was shot in Italian.

VENICE: The rights to the Serbian/Swedish documentary Possibility of Paradise by Mladen Kovačević are handled by the London-based sales agent Taskovski Films. Possibility of Paradise is screening in the Special Events programme of the sidebar section Giornate degli Autori, taking place during the 81st Venice Film Festival.

VENICE: The Venice Film Festival sidebar Venice Days has suspended the screenings of the second film of Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze The Antikvari / The Antique pending the final outcome of a dispute over the copyright to the screenplay by the coproducers of the film.

VENICE: The French/Italian/Georgian coproduction April directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili will have its world premiere on 5 September 2024 within the Competition of the 81st Venice Film Festival (28 August – 7 September 2024). Paris-based Goodfellas is handling the sales.