the robert bresson award 2016 goes to the russian director andrei

Press Release
THE ROBERT BRESSON AWARD 2016
GOES TO THE RUSSIAN DIRECTOR
ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY
Mons. Dario E. Viganò, Prefect of the Secretariat for
Communication of the Holy See will present the Award
September 9th 2016, Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo
Tropicana Hall 1 - Hotel Excelsior, Venice Lido
Venice, August 26th, 2016 – On the occasion of the 73rd Venice Film Festival (August
31 – September 10th, 2016), the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo (FEdS) and the
magazine «Rivista del Cinematografo» will present, on Friday, September 9th 2016 at
11 AM in the FEdS area (Tropicana Hall 1) of the Hotel Excelsior, the Robert Bresson
Award 2016 to the Russian Director Andrei Konchalovsky.
The award will be presented by Mons. Dario Edoardo Viganò, Prefect of the
Secretariat for Communication of the Holy See, in the presence of the President of the
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo don Davide Milani.
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ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY BRESSON AWARD 2016
A controversial Director with an essential style, capable of significant psychological
probing, Andrei Konchalovsky has had a commendable human and professional
itinerary, which substantiates itself in a positive view of cinema, a media that is able not
only to undergo suffering but also to take action within the realm of reality, reconnecting
it to an ideal of justice. An aspect that is present even in his first works, that are, not by
chance, in contrast with the Russian power structure (The Story of Asya Klyachina,
filmed in 1966, and only comes to the screen in 1988) first, and then with Hollywood,
where he also succeeds in creating real and true works of art like Maria’s Lovers,
Runaway Train and Shy People. His return to his mother country is marked by a
fundamental film like The Inner Circle (1992), that retraces Stalinist Russia through the
“blind” and naïve eyes of the official cinema operator of the Kremlin. A strong act of
condemnation that underlines the ever growing and often improper relationship
between Art and Power. A reflection that also accompanies the last works of the
Director, more meditative and nostalgic, and that reaches its peak with The Postman’s
White Nights, Silver Lion at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and a perfect example of that
cinema capable of being political without being ideological, ethnographic without
necessarily being scientific; intimate and subdued but conjugated in the plural, in that
community, that part of us from which the history and the sense of each individual
emerges and returns.
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo
Via Aurelia, 468 · 00165 Roma · Telefono +39 06 96519200 · Fax +39 06 96519220
E-mail [email protected] · www.entespettacolo.org · Partita IVA 09273491002 e Codice Fiscale 97434740581
Press Release
THE AWARD
The Robert Bresson Award – a work entitled HOPE and carried out by the sculptor and
goldsmith Andrea Cagnetti, also known as Akelo –, established in 1999, is assigned
each year at the Venice Film Festival by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and by
the magazine «Rivista del Cinematografo», and together with the Holy See, to the
Director that gave significant testimony of the difficult search for the spiritual meaning of
existence itself.
In the previous editions it was awarded to: Giuseppe Tornatore, Manoel de Oliveira,
Theo Angelopoulos, Krzysztof Zanussi, Wim Wenders, Jerzy Stuhr, Zhang Yuan,
Daniel Burman, Walter Salles, Aleksandr Sokurov, Mahamat Saleh-Haroun, JeanPierre and Luc Dardenne, Ken Loach, Amos Gitai, Carlo Verdone and Mohsen
Makhmalbaf.
Press Office
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo
Tel. +39 06 96519200
[email protected]
The Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo (www.entespettacolo.org) has been active on the Italian
cinematographic culture scene since 1946. Over the years it has become a leader in Cinema content and
with the cinematographic web portal cinematografo.it it runs the cinema sections for the Adnkronos, Alitalia,
Sole 24 Ore, AR-Code, ChiliTV-Corriere.it, Virgilio-IOL, ComingSoon Television, MTV, ITS Informatica,
Tiscali, Filmauro, Dire e Dire Giovani - cinema.
It carries out activities of traditional and electronic publishing, with the web portal www.cinematografo.it, it
organizes
cultural
events,
international
conferences,
seminars
and
festivals
(www.tertiomillenniofilmfest.org), film previews and often collaborates with important Italian and foreign
partners, such as the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Cinecittà Luce Spa, "Cahiers du cinéma", the
Fondazione Cineteca Italiana di Milano, MiBACT, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Film Museum of
Turin.
It publishes a daily press release dedicated to the world of cinema which can be consulted free of charge
on www.entespettacolo.org/rassegnastampa.
It publishes the magazine «Rivista del Cinematografo», Italy’s longest running film periodical.
It owns the web portal www.cineconomy.com, which was founded in 2009 offering a comprehensive view
of the Film Market and Industry in Italy to its users. With articles dealing with politics and finance from
leading European newspapers Cineconomy offers a wide range of opinions and points of view, attempting
to give a united picture of the European situation.
Every year it publishes the Report – The Film Market and Industry in Italy, which can also be
downloaded in English free of charge.
The Tertio Millennio Film Fest (www.tertiomillenniofilmfest.org) is the first festival carried out with the
Patronage of the Vatican and has reached, in 2015, its 19 th edition and is organized by the Fondazione
Ente dello Spettacolo and by the magazine «Rivista del Cinematografo», with the patronage of the
Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, with the support of the
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Press Release
World Catholic Association for Communication SIGNIS, Pitigliani - Italian Jewish Community Center,
COREIS (Islamic Religious Community) Italiana, International Interchurch Film Organisation INTERFILM,
in collaboration with Casa del Cinema of Rome, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca
Nazionale, Rai Cinema, Cultural project promoted by the Italian Church, TV2000, Instituto Cervantes
Roma. The Tertio Millennio Film Fest is a partnership with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà and is supported by SIAE
and the Directorate-General Cinema - Ministry of Cultural heritage and activities and Tourism.
The President Sergio Mattarella gave the 19. edition of the Tertio Millennio Film Fest a medal of
representation.
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