The 29th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 25 August to 7 September 1968.
The May 1968 events in France had serious repercussions on this festival. Five days before the festival was to be held, directors of the Italian filmmakers association ANAC, for both political and cultural reasons, withdrew their films from the competition. The Communist Party and the Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity were in favor of the boycott. Some directors, however, defected from this decision and Roberto Rossellini, Liliana Cavani, Bernardo Bertolucci and Nelo Risi decided to project their films. Pier Paolo Pasolini initially refused to participate at the festival, but finally his film entered in Competition.
During the inauguration day, the police had occupied the Palazzo del Cinema del Lido. The inauguration ceremony was skipped and a decision was taken to go ahead with the festival in a self-managed way, with the director of the festival, Chiarini, as chairman. The next day the police intervened and the meetings were canceled. Finally the competition started on the evening of 27 August, while demonstrations against "the fascist and bourgeois exhibition" were taking place outside the Palazzo.
Jury Guido Piovene, Italian writer and journalist - Jury President Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, French actor and filmmaker Akira Iwasaki, Japanese producer and film critic Roger Manvell, British author and filmmaker István Nemeskürty, Hungarian screenwriter and producer Vicente Antonio Pineda, Spanish Edgar Reitz, West-German director and producer
Official Selections The following films were selected to be screened:
In Competition English title Original title Director(s) Production country After the Deluge Después del diluvio Jacinto Esteva Spain Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos Alexander Kluge West Germany Ballad for a Dog Ballade pour un chien Gérard Vergez France The Castle Das Schloß Rudolf Noelte West Germany The Deserters and the Nomads Zbehovia a pútnici Juraj Jakubisko Czechoslovakia Diary of a Schizophrenic Girl Diario di una schizofrenica Nelo Risi Italy Faces John Cassavetes United States Falak András Kovács Hungary Fire! Fuoco! Gian Vittorio Baldi Italy Galileo Liliana Cavani Italy Kierion Dimosthenis Theos Greece Me and My Brother Robert Frank United States Monterey Pop D. A. Pennebaker United States Naked Childhood L'Enfance nue Maurice Pialat France Noon Podne Mladomir Puriša Đorđević Yugoslavia Our Lady of the Turks Nostra Signora dei Turchi Carmelo Bene Italy Partner Bernardo Bertolucci Italy Seven Days Somewhere Else Sept jours ailleurs Marin Karmitz France Silence and Cry Csend és kiáltás Miklós Jancsó Hungary Socrates Le Socrate Robert Lapoujade France Spray of the Days L'Écume des jours Charles Belmont France Stress Is Three Stress es tres, tres Carlos Saura Spain Summit Giorgio Bontempi Italy Tell Me Lies Peter Brook United Kingdom Teorema Pier Paolo Pasolini Italy Wheel of Ashes Peter Emmanuel Goldman United States Wild in the Streets Barry Shears United States
Out of Competition English title Original title Director(s) Production country A Report on the Party and the Guests O slavnosti a hostech Jan Nemec Czechoslovakia Sul davanti fioriva una magnolia Paolo Breccia Italy Informativa English title Original title Director(s) Production country Het compromis Philo Bregstein NetherlandsMandabi Le MandatOusmane SembèneFrance, Senegal
Official Awards
Main Competition Golden Lion: Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed by Alexander Kluge Special Jury Prize: Our Lady of the Turks by Carmelo Bene Le Socrate by Robert Lapoujade Mandabi by Ousmane Sembène Volpi Cup for Best Actor: John Marley for Faces Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Laura Betti for Teorema Honorable Mention: Kierion by Dimos Theos
Pasinetti Award Best Film: Faces by John Cassavetes References
External links
Venice Film Festival 1968 Awards on IMDb