US director Alexander Payne has been named as the jury president for the Venice International Film Festival, which runs from August 27 -Septembe
US director Alexander Payne has been named as the jury president for the Venice International Film Festival, which runs from August 27 -September 6.
Payne, whose credits include The Holdovers, Sideways, Nebraska and The Descendants, will oversee the international jury that awards the Golden Lion for Best Film, as well as other official awards.
Payne said: “It’s an enormous honor and joy to serve on the jury at Venice. Although I share a filmmaker’s ambivalence about comparing films against one another, I revere the Venice Film Festival’s nearly 100-year history of loudly celebrating film as an art form. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Venice festival director Alberto Barbera commented: “Alexander Payne belongs to the small circle of filmmakers-cinephiles whose passion for cinema is fueled by knowledge of films of the past and curiosity about contemporary cinema, without boundaries or barriers of any kind. These qualities – along with his experience as a screenwriter – make him an ideal candidate to preside over the work of the Venice Jury, which is called upon to evaluate films from around the world. I am grateful to Alexander for accepting my invitation, which seals an acquaintance that goes back to the days of his graduation short film at UCLA.”
Last year’s Venice jury president was French actress Isabelle Huppert.
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