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The Venice Cinema Show has been inaugurated in 1932, the first of  many events that now has achieved a worldwide importance. During the first edition (non competitive)...

... were presented various titles destined to become classics of the cinema history (the first one was Dr. Jeckill and Mr. Hyde)

The Exhibition becomes competitive (even without an international jury, present only from 1936) starting from the second edition, held in 1934, and lately became an annual appointment from 1935. In 1937  the cinema palace was inaugurated to remark the great success of the exhibition, the number of participant nations increased as well as the number of movies presented. During those years. Actors such as Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin come to the city.

During the war the exhibition was suspended and reprised lately in 1946 under the direction of Elio Zorzi. Those years were characterized by the attempt to rediscover the Internationality and freedom disappeared during the war. Masterpieces like Paisà or Il sole sorge ancora and also international operas by Lawrence Olivier, Fritz Lang, John Houston were shown. In that period the exhibition attired the great movie stars, Rita Hayworth, Joseph Cotton, Olivia de Havilland. Venice, once more, becomes the centre of attraction for many.

From this era also is the agreement with Cannes cinema’s exhibition, and an edition was held into the Doge’s palace courtyard, one of the best edition of its history. 50’ s and 60’ s were characterized by a strong international expansion and the establishment of the neorealist Italian Cinema (represented by directors as Rossellini, Fellini, Antonioni) as well as the affirmation of stars like Marlon Brando, Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano, Marcello Mastroianni, Venice becomes a real parade and the lucky ones to partecipate become milestones of the International Cinema. The end of the 60’s marked a period of  great political contestation of the exhibition (still governed by the fascist statute). Throughout the following decade, the exhibition became once again non-competitive and other collateral sections were added. The first “Leoni d’oro” (Golden lions) to the career were awarded (1971-72, Charlie Chaplin and John Ford) and the first movie was projected / Chinese documentary.

Although the period was positive for the Italian Cinema, the exhibition had a difficult  time that ended only  in 1979 when the new director, Carlo Lizzani, threw the basis to recover the authority of the exhibition. The next decade was characterized by a great success, a new section midday – midnight  dedicate to spectacular movies was created and by the affirmation of the German cinema. Later, under the direction of Braghi, the sections Horizons, night and special events (how can’t we remember The last temptation of Christ by Martin Scorsese) were created.

During the 90’s Venice (thanks to Director Pontecorvo) becomes the capital of movie authors. Many artists were attracted by the Lido of Venice  (Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington) and many initiative were thought to attract young people in the cinema show area. Many Golden Lions to the career were assigned (Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Francis Ford Coppola) rock concerts were organized too and moreover a section collecting everything unusual called “a window on the imagines” was created.

In the last years many investments were made on the structures of the Lido: the Sala Perla and the PalaBNL were enlarged and the Casino Palace was reserved to artists and journalists. Now the area of the cinema show is 11.000 square meters large. The event is characterized by the presence of many movie-stars, national and international, and to be remembered is the presence of Woody Allen in 2003, George Clooney, and Catherine Zeta Jones, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Salma Hayek and Jonny Deep, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins and Nicolas Cage.

The Cinema Show is constantly changing and it’s always been (and will always be) the avant-garde of proposals, solutions, movies and presentation of events. What will be the surprise this year?.