The world’s oldest film festival was born in 1932 in Venice, and since in Venice everything is more refined than elsewhere, we say here: la Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica. Saying “Mostra” is being instantly propelled on the Laguna in the ending summer, it is coming at the screening by vaporetto as the sun disappears behind the Salute, it is dining on spaghetti con le vongole in a marble palace while talking about the most important thing in the world: il Cinema.
In eighty editions, the Mostra has shown the films of the greatest filmmakers. The red carpet has been walked on by the stars of the whole century, from Italy of course, but also from Europe, Asia, and America... It was Venice, when the cinema born more than thirty years earlier was coming to maturity, that invented the idea of competition between films and the prize list. The “race” immediately fascinated journalists and critics who, since then, have been waiting for the award ceremony with impatience and can spend hours arguing after the jury’s verdict.
All in all prestigious, scandalous, and precursory (the three parts of the documentary), the Mostra has never stopped roaring, like the winged Lion that watches over the City. What filmmaker has not dreamed of winning the Golden Lion here, the highest distinction of a festival that has been tied to the world-renowned La Biennale di Venezia since its birth? As it prepares to celebrate its eightieth curtain raiser, it is time for the great hours of this great lady to be told.
This documentary takes us on a journey through the great story of the Mostra, rich in archives and in new testimonies that highlight the festival’s key moments, the great shocks of cinema and what makes Venice unique on the world map of the seventh art.