Venice Film Festival’s 86-year history revealed in fascinating black and white snaps – with guests from Paul Newman to Nazi Joseph Goebbels
In its long history the festival has been no stranger to controversy, whether it's been exhibiting daring new fashions or hosting budding fascists.
THE Venice Film Festival celebrated its 75th event this year – despite beginning 86 years ago.
Established in 1932, the event has seen everything from trussed up Nazis to Kirk Douglas wrestling with bikini-clad ladies.
Although there were a few years lost there, the festival is still the oldest film festival on the planet, seeing off its prestigious competitors, the Cannes and Berlin festivals.
Photographers have captures these moments, telling the story of how the festival has gone from a small artistic event, to a prestigious do attracting the world's most recognisable celebrities.
When it began ran it was the first international event of its type, but there were no prizes.
It launched on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior, with a screening of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The second festival followed two years later, boasting entries from 19 countries, and prizes.
By 1935 the event was annual, but the festival was in for a rocky few years, with World War II seeing the festival leave Venice.
Countries that were outside the Axis alliance between Berlin and Rome barely got a look in.
A Nazi propaganda film, Heimkehr, even won an award.
The top award was even branded the Mussolini Cup, after the country’s dictator, until he was ousted in 1943.
The atmosphere would have been a long way from the glittering event of today.
Come 1946, the festival was back to its former glory.
It went from strength to strength until 1963, when Luigi Chiarini’s directorship saw a new emphasis on artistic, rather than commercial, cinema.
Then in 1968 political unrest swept Italy, and for the next decade the festival was a non-competitive affair again.
The festival we know today was established by director Carlo Lizzani when he took control in 1979.
Lizzani created a committee of experts to assist in selecting works.
Notable overall winners, which are sure to be known to many, include The Fugitive in 1948, The Hurt Locker in 2008, and Philomena in 2013.
In its long history the festival has been no stranger to controversy, whether it's been exhibiting daring new fashions or hosting budding fascists.
This year's no different. Just like Cannes and Locarno, The Venice Film Festival saw the signing of a pledge on gender parity.
Festival organisers insisted that the practices in the protocol are already in place, but it has been sharply criticised for selecting only one film by a woman for the official competition for the second year in a row, alongside 20 competition titles by male filmmakers.
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The pledge commits the festival to transparency in the festival’s selection processes and gender parity in management.
The 2018 festival kicked off August 29, and will run until September 8.
The line-up ranges Damien Chazelle’s First Man – a look at the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong, starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy, all the way to Suspiria Directed by Luca Guadagni, which explores the darkness at the core of a world-renowned dance company.
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