Alexander Payne will head the main jury at the upcoming Venice Film Festival.
The Oscar winner twice was the last time in Venice with the “reducing” science fiction comedy for humans who won a mini to save the planet, starring Matt Damon, who opened the festival in 2017.
Payne’s eight films – all comic films – were nominated for 24 Academy Awards, including four times for the best and three times of the director. He won twice to the scenario of the air conditioner. The latest movie “The Holdoves” won the supporter Oscar in 2024. His other titles include “Citizen Ruth” (1996), “Election” (1999), “About Schmidt” (2002), “The Senderants” (2011), and “Nebraska” (2013).
It is currently preparing a new movie to be filmed in rural Denmark, whose details are kept under the winding.
Alexander Payne, 64, grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and studied Spanish history and literature in Stanford before obtaining a master’s degree in a film at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In a statement, the art director of Venice praised Alberto Barrara in a statement for his affiliation with “a small circle of filmmakers whose passion for cinema was fed to know the films of the past and the curiosity about contemporary cinema, without limits or barriers of any kind.”
He added: “These qualities – in addition to his experience as a screenwriter – make him an ideal candidate to head the work of the Venice jury, which was called to evaluate films from all over the world.”
“I am grateful to Alexander to accept my invitation, which concludes one of her acquaintances dating back to his short graduation days at the University of California, Los Angeles,” Barrara continued.
“It is a tremendous honor and joy to work in the jury in Venice,” Payne commented.
“Although I share the director’s contradiction about comparing films against each other, I justify the history of the Venice Film Festival, which is about 100 years of movie, which celebrates loudly as an artistic form. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic.”
The 82nd edition of Venice will continue on August 27. 6
