Collective memory and individual truths

The cinema is the “how”, not the “what”.
Alfred Hitchcock

Great movies start when we leave the cinema.
Wim Wenders

We remember the world through cinema.
Bernardo Bertolucci

The 22nd edition of Giornate degli Autori, promoted by ANAC and 100autori, will be held during the Venice Film Festival from August 27th to September 6th. Artistic Director Gaia Furrer has rolled out the numbers for the official selection (10 titles in competition, 1 closing film out of competition, and 5 special events, as well as the two short films on the Miu Miu Women’s Tale program; and the Venetian Nights lineup, organized jointly with Isola Edipo, featuring 9 titles with Italian major producers). All the films presented will be world premieres and together they form a window on the world that will transport film lovers to 20 different Countries and cultures (including Italy) that can boast a remarkable variety, to our liking, of styles and film languages; a strong showing for narrative documentaries, and a special attention to such themes as memory, personal history, and cultural alienation – a reflex reaction for artists, in these dramatic times we live in.

“In many of the selected titles,” declares Gaia Furrer, “the goal is life, building lives, relationships. One tries to process grief in order to overcome it and try hard to see the world as a hospitable place. To fill in the distance born of exile. In the stories we present in this new edition of Giornate degli Autori, what often surfaces is a stubborn attempt to patch up the ruptures with our past, with the Other, with ourselves. Love becomes an act of rebellion; memory and remembrance a political gesture; childhood and adolescence times of truth.”

Organized in accord with the Fondazione Biennale di Venezia and with the indispensable support of the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual, Giornate degli Autori is one of the Venice Film Festival’s two historic independent sidebars. Our showcase is made possible by the efforts of SIAE – Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, which this year again will award the Andrea Purgatori Lifetime Achievement Award and the Creative Talent Award; Miu Miu; crucial private partners like Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo and IWONDERFULL; and the contribution of numerous media and technical partners. 

Awarding the winner of the best film in competition with the GdA Director’s Award (a cash prize of €20,000 for the director and international distributor) will be the jury headed by Norwegian writer and director Dag Johan Haugerud, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlinale and whose breakout film, Barn, premiered at Giornate 2019. By his side, the Italian producer of Vermiglio, Francesca Andreoli; the Franco-Palestinian filmmaker Lina Soualem (a Giornate alumna with Bye Bye Tiberias); New York’s MoMA film curator Josh Siegel; and Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fani (La vie d’Adèle, Timbuktu). As always, the audiences in the Sala Perla will bestow the Audience Award on a film in the official selection, while the Europa Cinemas jury will select the winner of the Label from among the European films on the Giornate lineup.

It’s a slate with a strong orientation toward regions of the world too often forgotten by the media, unless the news is of a war or other disasters – countries like Kenya, Lebanon, Iran, Mexico, Lithuania, and Bosnia andHerzegovina. Yet it’s undeniable that Giornate, between the official selection and Venetian Nights, has also pulled off a splendid showing for popular homegrown actresses of outstanding talent, of the likes of Italy’s Jasmine Trinca, Valeria Golino, Giuliana De Sio, Geppi Cucciari, Greta Scarano, Miriam Leone, Tecla Insolia, Benedetta Porcaroli, Isabella Ragonese, Donatella Finocchiaro, and Iaia Forte. Not to mention the two astonishing women filmmakers on the Miu Miu Women’s Tales own lineup: Joanna Hogg and Mati Diop, plus Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux, the subject of Claire Simon’s film Écrire la vie, and still more women artists to be revealed in the coming weeks.

“It’s going to be an important edition,” declares Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, Presidente of Giornate degli Autori, “not just because it has Venice’s gem-studded lineup for company, but for the jeweller’s precision with which Giaia Furrer and all our staff have done the job. The gems in our own international collection are rare stones that come to us from countries often absent from the major festivals’ stages, while our domestic production mines the rich vein of Italian filmmakers, who find a space here and attention, in Venetian Nights as well. They make up a name roll of voices, themes, and actors that attests once more to our sidebar’s calling as an event where words and images tango in tandem, making for a true ‘diversity’ inside Venice at large. It’s a powerful stimulus and comes courtesy of the renewed cohesion between the filmmakers’ associations, the writers, directors, musicians and adapters, but not only: all the creative players in film united under the aegis of SIAE, with whom we sponsor numerous initiatives, the third international meeting of La Déclaration des Cinéastes first and foremost.”

Many of the films on the roster – over than one thousand this year – look to memories, be they individual or collective. Even more frequently, they portray a rising generation wavering between utopian urges and a sense of disorientation, as described by filmmakers mostly young themselves, inclined to focus their gazes on the individual dimension, as if the echoes of history and the roar of social crises is just a menacing white noise that they seek to stifle, while harboring anger that is all too often unexpressed. And it is to this very world of the young, walking the thin line between utopia and real hope, that we have decided to dedicate the poster for this year, with the creative complicity of a truly ingenious and unique artist, Pax Paloscia.

The true stars of Giornate degli Autori remain the filmmakers, men and women who have gifted us with their potent visual stories that pack a punch that always comes off as a revelation, even when some of them are no longer so young on their drivers’ licenses. That’s the case for Gianni Di Gregorio, whom we welcome with great cheer to our “community”, with his, the closing film, Come ti muovi, sbagli, while the opening title of our lineup this year is Memory, debut film by Vladlena Sandu, born in Crimea, and in exile since 2022. They are two titles which, in what almost seems a twist of fate, embody the spirit of our journey.

As always, the Casa degli Autori is the beating heart of Giornate degli Autori. This year as well, our Sala Laguna, after a state-of-the-art renovation as a screening venue, thanks to restoration efforts conducted jointly by Isola Edipo, the Patriarchate of Venice, and the Parish of Sant’Antonio, will host films and the spoken word, with conversations and a lineup of Giornate guests. Along with Venetian Nights, in fact, Sala Laguna is the setting for #confronti, which distills reflections, provocations, stories and film stories about Italy today. Here we have put together, with the filmmakers’ associations, a daily program packed with surprises, premieres of films with themes we hold dear, and outstanding artists in dialogues with audiences: from our jury president to the winner of the Le Vie dell’Immagine Award, established in concert with the Ente dello Spettacolo e Cinematografo; to the protagonists of Inclusive Cinema from Vision to Training, promoted by Isola Edipo with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain; and the collaboration of Giornate degli Autori on the exhibition “Sandro Symeoni. Dipingere il Cinema”. This show, curated by Luca Siano, is organized by Ferrara La città del Cinema, with the Archivio Sandro Simeoni that will be “dressing up” Sala Laguna during the festival.

Last but not least, we welcome several film promotion players with historic ties to Giornate, such as AFIC – Associazione dei festival italiani di cinema, with whom we take part in the campaign R1PUD1A promoted by EMERGENCY; the Milano Film Network, with the new edition of Milano Industry Days; and Bookciak, Azione! which we promote with SNGCI – The National Syndicate of Film Journalists. And, for the first time, we welcome the Macau International Shorts Film Festival, which will be holding its second edition in Venice (September 14th to the 21st). 

“If ‘discovery’ is the calling of Giornate degli Autori, with no restrictions on age, gender, or borders, “says General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “then we can proudly declare, once again, that ‘humanity’ is the hallmark of our lineup, as against the frenetic daily pace and programs of a large festival. The Casa degli Autori is the venue that sums up our identity – ‘The place to be’ that makes Giornate unique at Venice. I’d like to point out the sheer variety of our thought-provoking events assembled under the title #confronti; our joint efforts with Edipo, Europa Cinemas, and Bookciak, Azione!; and our hospitality at the Villa, maximized this year by our partnership with Unifrance e Giffoni Innovation Hub. I like to think of Giornate degli Autori as the moment when, thanks to cinema, people themselves take center-stage, with their stories, dreams, their traumaticexperiences, and their hope in a better world. This being the legacy handed down to us by our ideal guides – Citto Maselli, Emidio Greco, and Andrea Purgatori – and it is in just this spirit that, as our honorary president Roberto Barzanti reminds us, we seek to fashion a ‘different idea of a festival’.

Lastly, heartfelt thanks to the magnificent staff at Giornate, which makes it a vibrant, ever-fresh event; the members of the Associazione Giornate degli Autori and the Board of Directors, who guarantee our editorial line with passion and generosity; our technical and media partners this year; and the many young students here from Bari, Bologna, Milan, and Venice, to share the experience of working at the Venice Film Festival with us.