Venice opener announced

Guiseppe Tornatore's Baavia to headline.

by Jennie Kermode

This year's Venice Film Festival, set to run between the 2nd and 12th of September, will open with Guiseppe Tornatore's new film Baavia, the organisers have announced.

Set in the Sicilian village of Bagheria (known as Baavia to its occupants), this autobiographical film, epic in scope, stars Francesco Scianna and Margaret Madè, with support from Monica Bellucci. It was made on a budget of around £20M, making it the most expensive Italian film for years, and its producers have high hopes of winning this year's Golden Lion award.

Tornatore is best known in the UK as the writer-director of heartwarming fable Cinema Paradiso, which won an Oscar in 1990. He has previously served on the Venice Film Festival jury.

Share this with others on...
News

About a bear Iain Gardner on immigration, community and A Bear Named Wojtek

Tests of love Dennis Iliadis and his star Konstantina Messini on twisty meet-the-parents thriller Buzzheart

You must remember this Loïc Espuche on childhood revulsion, shyness, shame, kissing and Yuck!

Lights and shadows Dustin Pittman with Ed Bahlman on Alan J Pakula, James Ivory, Brian De Palma and Jerry Schatzberg

Innocence lost Sebastián Parra R on growing up too fast and world building in Seed Of The Desert

UK hopes ride high as Oscar International Film shortlist announced Ireland also makes the grade

More news and features

Interact

More competitions coming soon.


DJDT

Versions

Time

Settings from settings.local

Headers

Request

SQL queries from 1 connection

Templates (10 rendered)

Cache calls from 2 backends

Signals