Our first Coffee with Venezia da Vivere takes you behind the scenes of the opening day on Wednesday, August 27, when amid red carpets, ceremonies, and world premieres, the 82nd Venice International Film Festival opens with Toni Servillo starring in La Grazia by Paolo Sorrentino and Werner Herzog receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
The 82nd Venice International Film Festival opens Wednesday, August 27 (through September 6) with La Grazia by Paolo Sorrentino, the opening film in competition starring Toni Servillo, alongside Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque, Massimo Venturiello, Milvia Marigliano, Giuseppe Gaiani, Linda Messerklinger, and Vasco Mirandola. The Orizzonti section and Venice Days also begin, with two intense stories centered on women.
Our first Coffee with Venezia da Vivere accompanies you through the opening day, which will see Werner Herzog receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 7 PM ceremony in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema.
Toni Servillo, winner of four David di Donatello awards, could aim for the Volpi Cup, which has always eluded him despite the three Pasinetti Awards for Best Actor won with Luna Rossa in 2001, with La ragazza del lago in 2007, and with Qui rido io in 2021. The partnership with Paolo Sorrentino, with whom this is their seventh collaboration, began in Venice in 2001 with L’uomo in più, the Neapolitan director’s debut film, and continued with Le conseguenze dell’amore, Il Divo, La Grande Bellezza, and È stata la mano di Dio, which have taken this fantastic duo to the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and could finally earn him the recognition that the international jury of the Film Festival, this year led by Alexander Payne, awards to the best actor.
In recent years we have seen him in Venice several times, presenting films that have subsequently won awards in Italy and abroad. Last year he played the role of Matteo Messina Denaro in Iddu, l’ultimo padrino by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia. The previous year he starred in Adagio by Stefano Sollima, and in 2021 he presented three films: Qui rido io by Mario Martone, Ariaferma by Leonardo Di Costanzo, and È stata la mano di Dio by Paolo Sorrentino.
The opening ceremony
Red carpet, international stars, and the Golden Lion to Werner Herzog: the opening evening in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema begins at 7 PM on Wednesday, August 27.
In the afternoon, attention will be on the opening red carpet, which will feature the juries, the Festival and Biennale management, actress Emanuela Fanelli who will serve as host (this year the term “madrina” has been updated), the cast of La Grazia, and numerous Italian and international celebrities.
The opening ceremony, which will precede the screening of Sorrentino’s film, will see the presentation of the first Golden Lion of this year, the Lifetime Achievement award to Werner Herzog, German director, screenwriter, film producer, writer, actor, and documentarian, celebrated for Fitzcarraldo from 1982, Aguirre, the Wrath of God from 1972, and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back from 2012, and nominated for an Oscar in 2009 for Encounters at the End of the World.
New Horizons for a young Mother Teresa
During the day, two other films will launch their respective festival sections: at 4 PM in the Sala Darsena, the Orizzonti section will open with Mother by Teona Strugar Mitevska, a Belgian-Macedonian co-production about the early years and vocation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
“It took me exactly twenty-five years to get where I am today and make Mother, a film that fully represents me and the person I want to be: bold, courageous, and free,” states the director.
Some dialogues are faithful transcriptions of interviews that Teona Strugar Mitevska conducted for a previous documentary.
Venice Days
At 4:30 PM in Sala Perla, at the Palazzo del Casinò, Venice Days also begins, now in its twenty-second edition, with Memory by Vladena Sandu, which retraces the director’s childhood memories in Chechnya, in a country overwhelmed by war. The question she poses is how to break the vicious cycle of violence that in her country, as in so many others, is shaping the lives of new generations.
During Venice Days, 10 films in competition, 1 closing film out of competition, 5 special events, and 2 short films from the Miu Miu Women’s Tales project will be presented, all in world premiere. The 2025 edition will feature 12 female directors and 20 nations represented.
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Article by Pietro Gallina (VeneziaCinema) with Lucia Pecoraro.
Photos by Rossana Viola (cover), Marta Formentello, and Cristina di Bella.
