Happy 75th Birthday Venice Film Festival

Lido beach, the vacation heaven for Italianos in the summer

Venice Film Festival turns 75 this year and the festival, regarded as the oldest in the world had lost its appeal of being the stage for edgy works of directors and filmmakers all around the world. Though critics condemned the festival recently for its invitation of big Hollywood stars to pull in the crowd, the festival is still respected for its contribution in bringing to the world some of the great filmmakers. Interesting facts is that the festival was conceived initially as the propaganda tools for the Mussolini dictator administration. Read more about the history of the festival here.

This is the place the stars arrived in gondolas attending the premier screenings or checking in to the glamourous hotels in Lido, Venice.

The festival had been generous to the Asian cinemas with the honored list such as Zhang Yuan, Gong Li and Xia Yu from China, Abbas Kiarostami from Iran and Takeshi Kitano from Japan.

The famous hotel in Lido, Venice where the stars stay and dine and being paparazi-ed.

Having said that, the festival had its share of what-the-hell-is-going-on? moment such as honoring Ben Affleck last year for Hollywoodland. It had also being known as having some pet actors who kept being honored such as Shirley MacLaine and Javier Bardem (no qualm though).

NOTES : ALL PHOTOS TAKEN IN 2005 DURING MY 10 LONELY DAYS BACKPACKING THROUGH ITALY, NAMELY VENICE, FLORENCE AND ROME.