Daniela Michel, Juror at the Venice Film Festival

We are pleased to announce that FICM's general director Daniela Michel is a juror at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, which will be held from September 2 to 12, 2015. This event, which is part of the Bienale de Venecia, is one of the most prestigious platforms for the promotion of cinematographic art for more than half a century.

Daniela Michel will participate in the presentation of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” award for Best First Film – Lion of the Future, which is given to the best first feature of any of the competitive sections at Venice. The jury that will decide will be be presided over by Italian director Saverio Costanzo and, in addition to Daniela Michel, includes the executive producer from Hong Kong, Roger Garcia, a historian and critic of French cinema Natacha Laurent, and U.S. director Charles Burnett.

Speaking about the opportunity of being a member of the official jury at the Venice International Film Festival, Daniela Michel said, “For me it represents an extraordinary recognition to be part of the official jury at Venice, one of the biggest festivals in the world. Sharing this place with great figures of cinema is an honor and I’m sure that it will be a wonderful experience. It is an invaluable opportunity and I’m especially interested in the work of young filmmakers at the international level.”

Daniela Michel at the red carpet of the 2015 Venice International Film Festival. Photo by Getty Images.

Daniela Michel has participated as a jury member in more than 10 international festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival on two occasions (in 2011 in the section Un Certain Regard and in 2014 in the Critics’ Week). She has also been a juror at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF), the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) and the Cartagena Internataional Film Festival (FICCI), as well as for the Audiovisual Scholarships of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fulbright García-Robles Film Fellowships and the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.

Mexico will also be represented at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival by the extraordinary Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who will chair the jury of the official competition (Venezia 72) and, among other awards, will present the prestigious Golden Lion for Best Film. Cuarón will be accompanied by eight prominent personalities of world cinema: French author, screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrère; Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski; Italian director Francesco Munzi; Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien; German actress Diane Kruger; British director Lynne Ramsay; and U.S. actress and director Elizabeth Banks.

Another international jury in Venice, the group in charge of presenting the Orizzonti Award, will be presided over by U.S. director Jonathan Demme and includes French director and screenwriter Alix Delaporte; Spanish actress Paz Vega; the director from Hong Kong, Fruit Chani; and Italian actress Anita Caprioli.

It is an honor for FICM to have its general director as part of this wonderful group of personalities of the international film industry.

For more information, consult the official site of the Venice International Film Festival
www.labiennale.org/en/cinema