15/07/2020 - The Israeli director, who won the Golden Bear at Berlin, is to head up the jury composed of 27 young European film aficionados that will hand out the GdA Director’s Award

This year, Israeli director Nadav Lapid will head up the official jury of the Giornate degli Autori, the 17^th edition of which will unspool from 2-12 September during the 77th Venice Film Festival. The 45-year-old filmmaker, who scooped the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlinale with his third feature, Synonyms [+see also:
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“Our competition,” explains general delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “has always been more than a simple contest; we see it as an opportunity to support the finest independent films after their world premiere at Venice. This is why we seek out remarkable film personalities with far-reaching vision, like Nadav Lapid, to preside over the discussions by a diverse group of film aficionados who can envision the cinema of the future.”

“Even in the most nihilistic, misanthropic, ironic and desperate films, there’s unavoidably a root of belief,” writes Lapid, who graduated in Film at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem after studying Philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv. “And consequently, [there is] an optimism. A belief in the capacity of a certain audio and a certain visual to come together, to merge. Belief that this audiovisual will have an echo on a human’s soul, that something has a sense, and that this sense can be fabricated on screen. In normal times, being a jury member is a functional post, bureaucratic in a good way, at the service of the fragile but beautiful machine of international cinema. But the pandemic obliges us to look beyond the horizon of our cinema universe, to ask how much sense all of this has? How much weight? Is it still extremely important? Should we still believe in cinema? In this sense, the proper existence of the Biennale might hopefully be an answer.”

“We are honoured and delighted to have Lapid as jury president,” declares Gaia Furrer, artistic director of the Giornate degli Autori, starting this year. “With its ability to probe the innermost workings of the human psyche, Lapid’s cinema represents a reawakening, rebirth and revolt. His is a cinema of rebellion, full of urgency, and a cathartic experience. Now, more than ever before, we need filmmakers who can take on the issues of contemporary life while pushing the envelope of film, in all its enormous potential.”

As a reminder, the official jury of the Giornate degli Autori is made possible by the 27 Times Cinema project, jointly organised by the Giornate degli Autori, the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize and Europa Cinemas, in collaboration with Cineuropa.

(Translated from Italian)