69th Venice International Film Festival

The 69th annual Venice International Film Festival, was held from 29 August to 8 September 2012, at Venice Lido in Italy.
American filmmaker Michael Mann was the jury president for the main competition. Polish actress Kasia Smutniak was the Host of the opening and closing ceremonies. The Golden Lion was awarded to Pietà by Kim Ki-duk.
The festival opened with The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mira Nair, and closed with The Man Who Laughs by Jean-Pierre Ameris.

WWW labiennale.org/en/cinema

Juries

Main competition (''Venezia 69'')

Michael Mann, American filmmaker - Jury President
Marina Abramović, Serbian performance artist
Laetitia Casta, French actress
Peter Ho-sun Chan, Hong Kong filmmaker
Ari Folman, Israeli filmmaker
Matteo Garrone, Italian filmmaker
Ursula Meier, French-Swiss filmmaker
Samantha Morton, English actress and director
Pablo Trapero, Argentine director

''[Orizzonti]''

Pierfrancesco Favino, Italian actor - Jury President
Sandra den Hamer, Dutch director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam
Runa Islam, Bangladeshi-born British visual artist and filmmaker
Jason Kliot, American independent producer
Nadine Labaki, Lebanese actress and filmmaker
Milcho Manchevski, Macedonian filmmaker
Amir Naderi, Iranian film filmmaker and photographer

Opera Prima (Venice Award for a Debut Film)

Shekhar Kapur, Indian film director, actor and producer - Jury President
Michel Demopoulos, Greek film critic
Isabella Ferrari, Italian actress
Matt Reeves, American filmmaker and producer
Bob Sinclar, French record producer, DJ, and Yellow Productions owner

Official Sections

In Competition

The following films were selected for the main competition:

Out of Competition

The following films were selected for the out of competition section:

''[Orizzonti]''

The following films were selected for the Horizons section:

Venice Classics

The following selection of restored classic films and documentaries on cinema were screened for this section:

«80!»

The following rare films from the Biennale's Historical Archives were screened for this retrospective section:

Special Screenings

The following films of the Official Selection were presented as Special Screenings:

Original Title	Director	Production country
Carmel	Amos Gitai	Israel, France, Italy
Convitto Falcone	Pasquale Scimeca	Italy
Hommage to Simone Massi	Simone Massi	Italy

Independent Sections

Venice International Film Critics' Week

The following films were selected for the Critics' Week:

Venice Days

The following films were selected for the Venice Days section:

Official Awards

In Competition (''Venezia 69'')

Golden Lion: Pietà by Kim Ki-duk
Silver Lion for Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master
Special Jury Prize: Paradise: Faith by Ulrich Seidl
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Hadas Yaron for Fill the Void
Marcello Mastroianni Award: Fabrizio Falco for Dormant Beauty and It Was the Son
Golden Osella for Best Screenplay: Olivier Assayas for Something in the Air
Golden Osella for Best Cinematography: Daniele Ciprì for ''It Was the Son''

[Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement]

Francesco Rosi

Horizons (''Orizzonti'')

Best Film: Three Sisters by Wang BingSpecial Jury Prize: Tango libre by Frédéric FonteyneHorizons YouTube Award for Best Short Film: Invitation by Min-Young YooEuropean Film Awards : Out Of Frame by Yorgos Zois

"Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for a Debut Film

Mold by Ali Aydın

Independent Sections Awards

Venice International Film Critics' Week

"RaroVideo" Audience Award: Eat Sleep Die by Gabriela PichlerArca CinemaGiovani Award for Best Italian film: The Ideal City by Luigi Lo Cascio

Venice Days (''Giornati degli Autori">Giornate degli Autori">Giornati degli Autori'')

Label Europa Cinemas Award: Crawl by Hervé LasgouttesLina Mangiacapre Award: Queen of Montreuil by Sólveig AnspachPremio Cinematografico “Civitas Vitae prossima” Award: Terramatta by Costanza Quatriglio

Independent Awards

The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the official selection:

FIPRESCI Awards">FIPRESCI">FIPRESCI Awards

Best Film : The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Film : The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

[Queer Lion]

The Weight by Jeon Kyu-hwan

SIGNIS Award">SIGNIS">SIGNIS Award

To the Wonder by Terrence Malick

* Special mention: Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein

Special Awards

Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award: Michael CiminoJaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award: Spike LeeL’Oréal Paris per il Cinema Award: Giulia Bevilacqua

Francesco Pasinetti (SNGCI) Award

Best Film: The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo
Best Documentary: The Human Cargo by Daniele Vicari
Best Actor: Valerio Mastandrea for Balancing Act
Pasinetti Speciale: Clarisse by Liliana Cavani

Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola Award

Pieta by Kim Ki-duk

Cinema for UNICEF mention

It Was the Son by Daniele Ciprì

Brian Award

Dormant Beauty by Marco Bellocchio

Arca CinemaGiovani Award - Venezia 69

The Fifth Season by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth

Biografilm Lancia Award

The Human Cargo by Daniele VicariBad25 by Spike Lee

Bisato d'Oro Award

Best Film: Bellas Mariposas by Salvatore Mereu
Best Director: Jazmín López for Lions
Best Actress: Nora Aunor for ''Thy Womb''

CICT - UNESCO "Enrico Fulchignoni" Award

The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

CICAE - Cinema d’Arte e d’Essai Award

Wadjda by Haifaa Al Mansour

CinemAvvenire Award

Best film - Venezia 69: Paradies: Glaube by Ulrich Seidl
Best film - Il cerchio non è rotondo: Wadjda by Haifaa al-Mansour

FEDIC Award

The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

* Special mention: Bellas Mariposas by Salvatore Mereu

Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award

Something in the Air by Olivier Assayas

Future Film Festival Digital Award

Bad25 by Spike Lee

* Special mention: Spring Breakers by Harmony Korine

P. Nazareno Taddei Award

Pieta by Kim Ki-duk

* Special mention: Thy Womb by Brillante Mendoza

Lanterna Magica (CGS) Award

The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

Open Award

The Company You Keep by Robert Redford

La Navicella – Venezia Cinema Award

Thy Womb by Brillante Mendoza

AIF - FORFILMFEST Award

The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

Golden Mouse

Pieta by Kim Ki-dukSilver Mouse: Anton's Right Here by Lyubov Arkus

UK - Italy Creative Industries Award – Best Innovative Budget Award

The Interval by Leonardo Di Costanzo

Gillo Pontecorvo - Arcobaleno Latino Award

Laura Delli Colli

Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Award

Low Tide by Roberto Minervini

Interfilm Award for Promoting Interreligious Dialogue

Wadjda by Haifaa Al Mansour

Giovani Giurati del Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Award

The Company You Keep by Robert Redford

* Special mention: Toni Servillo for ''It Was the Son''

Green Drop Award

The Fifth Season by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth

Controversy over Golden Lion

The jury led by filmmaker Michael Mann originally was to award the top Golden Lion prize to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, along with the Silver Lion Best Director award and the Best Actor award. However, because of festival's new rule prohibiting pairing the Golden Lion with any other prizes, the jury was asked "to re-deliberate to remove" one of the awards for The Master, and the Golden Lion was awarded to Kim Ki-duk's Pietà instead. On the other hand, the jury was planned to award the Coppa Volpi for the Best Actress prize to Jo Min-su, who acted Jang Mi-sun in Pietà. However, because of the festival's new rule, the jury couldn't award a prize to Jo Min-su. In the official reception which was held after the festival was over, many juries, such as Samantha Morton and Peter Chan met Jo, saying that "Jo's acting was touching that changed my life. I shed tears of Jo's play."