For over ten years now, Giornate degli Autori, the European Parliament LUX Film Prize and Europa Cinemas (with the contribution of www.cineuropa.org) have joined forces with the idea of carving out a space devoted to Europe, its young people, and their genuine love of cinema at the Venice Film Festival.

That initial common purpose was the springboard for the 27 Time Cinema program that brings a new crop of young film lovers to the Venice Film Festival every year. Aged 18 to 25, they come from all 27 countries in the European Union. But the 27 Times Cinema participants also make up the only official jury for Giornate degli Autori and it is they who assign the GdA Director's Award, now in its seventh year, which carries a cash prize of €20,000 to be split between the director and the distributor of the winning film. The jury's deliberations will be moderated by Karel Och, Artistic Director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival; Och has served as a special "Tutor" for the Giornate jury since the award was instituted in 2014. This year, the jury president himself is the world-renowned filmmaker Nadav Lapid, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival.

When Venice comes to a close, our young jurors embark on a special mission as ambassadors and promoters - virtual influencers, really - of the events connected with the LUX Film Prize, on social media and in the cinemas in the Europa Cinemas network. Eighteen females and nine males (their mascot being 18-year-old Alexandra from Poland, who dreams of seeing where movies like The Italian Job or The Tourist were filmed), many of them already have an impressive following on social networks, like Estonia's Emel-Elizabeth, whose bid for the jury was supported by her 250,000 followers. Our versatile jury also includes guitarists and bass players, budding bakers and pro cyclists. Naturally, budding auteurs also abound (Germany's Ella discovered she loved film at the age of ten, playing with her iPod), and at least two of them made their first "shorts" at the age of fourteen. Not all of them, though, are single-minded about film: Italy's Bianca, for example, is amazed she was tapped for the jury, since she's studying political science and economics at college, although she would like to get into sustainable cinema projects after she graduates. One look at these young jurors' dreams as well as their experiences to date, and you'll be sure that their generation does have what it takes to change the world.

For those members of the press and public who'd like to see the 27 Times Cinema jurors in action with their own eyes, Giornate will be opening up Villa degli Autori for the last round of jury deliberations, open to the public and livestreamed as well. And the winner of the 2020 GdA Director's Award is…..find out live, on Friday, September 11th!