Mostra Internazionale d Arte Cinematografica Venice

Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlinale for Synonyms, Navad Lapid will guide as president of the jury the young 27 Times Cinema jurors as they select the 2020 GdA Director’s Award.

45-year-old Nadav Lapid has three feature films and numerous shorts and documentaries under his belt, and his Synonyms won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He first studied philosophy and then pursued a film studies degree at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. A well-known writer, as well, in Israel, he divides his time between Tel Aviv and Paris and is considered the face of new Israeli cinema. He has served on the juries of the International Critics’ Week at Cannes and the Locarno Film Festival.

Nadav Lapid accepted the invitation from Giornate degli Autori as a way to do his part in such a difficult year for film. He’ll be heading an unusual jury of 27 young cinephiles from every country in the European Union, under the aegis of the European Parliament’s 27 Times Cinema initiative, coordinated in Venice by the director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Karel Och. Giornate’s official jury, chaired by Lapid, will be assigning the GdA Director’s Award for the best film on the ten-title GdA competition lineup. The award carries a cash prize of € 20,000, and the jury’s deliberations will be livestreamed on Giornate’s social media channels on Friday, September 11.

“Our competition” explains General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “has always been more than a simple contest; we see it as an opportunity to support the finest independent films after their world premiere in Venice. This is why we seek out remarkable film personalities with far-reaching vision, like Lapid, to preside over the discussions by a diverse group of film aficionados who can envision the cinema of the future. We would like to thank Lapid for accepting our invitation, and we are sure he will leave his mark on the upcoming edition of this independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, the brainchild of the Italian filmmakers’ associations, aimed at promoting film talent the world over.”

“Even in the most nihilistic, misanthropic, ironic and desperate films,” writes Lapid, “there’s unavoidably a root of belief. And consequently, an optimism. A belief in the capacity of a certain audio and a certain visual to come together, to merge. Belief that this audio-visual will have an echo on human’s soul, that something has a sense, and that this sense can be fabricated on screen. This fundamental belief that all of this has a meaning, got connected nowadays, that’s how I feel, to the service I’ve been asked to supply, being the president of the Giornate jury in the upcoming Venice festival. In normal times being a jury member is a functional post, bureaucratic in a good way, at the service of the fragile but beautiful machine of international cinema. But the pandemic obliges us to look beyond the horizon of our cinema universe, to ask how much sense all of this has? How much weight? Is it still extremely important? Should we still believe in cinema? In this sense, the proper existence of the Biennale might hopefully be an answer.”

“We are honored and delighted to have Lapid as jury president” declares Gaia Furrer, Artistic Director of Giornate degli Autori starting this year. “With its ability to probe the innermost workings of the human psyche, Lapid’s cinema represents a reawakening, rebirth and revolt. His is a cinema of rebellion, full of urgency, and a cathartic experience. Now more than ever before we need filmmakers who can take on the issues of contemporary life while pushing the envelope of film, in all its enormous potential.”

The official Giornate jury is made possible by the 27 Times Cinema project jointly organized by Giornate degli Autori, the European Parliament’s Lux Film Prize, and Europa Cinemas, in collaboration with Cineuropa.

Nadav Lapid (Tel Aviv, 1975) studied philosophy at Tel Aviv University. After military service, he moved to Paris before returning to Israel to take a degree at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem. His short film Road screened in the 2005 Panorama. His debut feature film Policeman won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno in 2011, while The Kindergarten Teacher featured in the 2014 Semaine de la Critique at Cannes. In 2015, Why? screened in Berlinale Shorts. He is a recipient of the French Order Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2019, his Synonyms won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival

2019 Synonymes [Synonyme]

2016 Myomano Shel Tzlam Hatonot [From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer, short]

2015 Lama? [Why?, short]

2014 Love Letters to Cinema [various authors, short]

2014 Haganenet [The Kindergarten Teacher]

2011 Ha-shoter [Policeman]

2006 Ha-chavera shell Emile [Emile’s Girlfriend, short]

2005 Kvish [Road, short]

2003 Proyect gvul [short]

P.S. The selection of the films will be announced around 8 pm after the press conference held at 7 pm on 23rd of July.

Giornate degli Autori (The Days) are promoted by ANAC and 100autori, in agreement with the 77. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia.