Annette Bening to head Venice film festival jury
ROME — US actress Annette Bening will preside the jury for this year’s Venice International Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday.
“It was time to break with a long list of male presidents and invite a brilliant, talented, and inspiring woman to chair our international competition jury,” the prestigious festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, said in a statement.
“A sophisticated and instinctive actress, able to portray complex shadings of character, Annette Bening brings to her roles an understatement, a warmth and a natural elegance that makes watching her films a wonderful and ever- enriching experience,” enthused Barbera of the American Beauty star and two- time Golden Globe winner.
In a statement, Bening, who will be the first woman to preside Venice since French actress Catherine Deneuve in 2006, said she was “honored to be asked to serve as the president of the jury for this year’s event.
“I look forward to seeing the movies and working with my fellow jury members to celebrate the best of this year’s cinema from all over the world.”
Bening won her Globes in 2005 for Adorable Julia and in 2011 for The Kids Are All Right while she has received four Oscar nominations, including for best actress in 2000 for American Beauty.
Her predecessor presiding the Venice jury was British director Sam Mendes, who landed an Oscar for American Beauty.
ADRIEN BRODY HONORED
Meanwhile, US actor Adrien Brody will receive the prestigious Leopard Club Award when the Locarno Film Festival kicks off in Switzerland next month, organizers said Tuesday.
The 44-year-old, best known for his haunting role in the 2002 Oscar-winning Holocaust film The Pianist, will receive the award on Aug. 4 at the festival on the picturesque shores of Lake Maggiore.
The prize is awarded to actors “whose work has left a mark on the collective imagination” and has previously gone to stars including Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Andy Garcia.
“Brody gained a lasting place in the collective imagination of the movie-going public when he played composer Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist,” directed by Roman Polanski, festival organizers said.
The actor, who won an Oscar for that role, “has since demonstrated his status as one of the most versatile of actors, appreciated by filmmakers in Hollywood and beyond,” they added.
Brody started his film career in 1989 in the Francis Ford Coppola- directed segment of New York Stories. He has since worked with many of the world’s top directors, including Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone, Ken Loach, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, and Woody Allen.
The 70th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will run from Aug. 2-12. —