Arturo Ripstein Will Receive a Special Award in Venice 2015

he 72nd Venice International Film Festival, which will take place from September 2 to 12, 2015, will present a special award to Mexican Arturo Ripstein in celebration of his 50-year career, during which he has made more than 40 films, including works that have left a mark on the history of Mexican cinema, such as El castillo de la pureza (1973), Profundo carmesí (1996) and El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1999), among many others. His most recent film, La calle de la amargura, will be shown at the awards ceremony on Thursday, September 10, at 10 pm, in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema.

Image from the poster of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

Alberto Barbera, general director of the festival, said, “Arturo Ripstein is the most vital, tenacious and original director of the generation that made its debut in the mid-Sixties, the heir of the golden age of Mexican studio films and the forerunner of the new generation of contemporary authors such as Carlos Reygadas, Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Pereda, each of whom in their own way, recognizes the profound debt that they owe to his work. In his so many unforgettable films, most of them co-written with Paz Alicia Garciadiego, Ripstein has brought to life a restless and afflicted universe, populated with characters pathetically on the verge of the abyss into which they are destined to fall. The strange blend of beauty and brutality, compassion and violence, irony and sadness, adds a wholly personal dimension to his cinema, which delves its roots into popular tragedy and the atmospheres of melodrama, which he cleverly re-elaborates. These elements are also to be found, their power and beauty intact, in his latest film, which the Venice Film Festival has the pleasure of presenting in its world premiere screening.”

In addition to La calle de la amargura, Mexican cinema will be represented at the Venice International Film Festival 2015 by four productions in competition, Alfonso Cuarón as president of the jury of the sections in competition, and Daniela Michel, general director of FICM, as part of the jury that will present the “Luigi De Laurentiis” award to the Best First Film. This event, which is part of the Venice Biennale, has been one of the most distinguished platforms for the promotion of cinematographic art for more than 50 years and for FICM it is an honor that our general director will participate in the jury, together with an outstanding group of personalities of the international film industry. For more information, click: here.