Alberto Barbera appointed Artistic Director of the Biennale Cinema for 2025 and 2026

The Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, has approved the appointment of Alberto Barbera as Artistic Director of the Cinema Department for the years 2025 and 2026.

Alberto Barbera, whose tenure as Artistic Director deliberated in 2020 by the preceding Board of Directors expires after the next 81^st Venice International Film Festival (28 August – 7 September 2024), has been appointed for the next two years 2025 and 2026 in consideration of the results he has achieved in the recognized quality of the selections, in discovering and launching new talents on the international stage, in spreading and advancing the culture of cinema and in expanding audiences, results that must be pursued over the next two years as well. “I felt an immediate understanding with Alberto Barbera – stated the President of La Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco – and I have great respect for the expertise, professionalism and passion he has demonstrated in the years that he has directed the Venice International Film Festival, which have enhanced the prestige of the oldest film festival in the world. I am extremely pleased that La Biennale will continue down this path with him”. 

Alberto Barbera has been the Artistic Director of the Cinema Department of La Biennale di Venezia from 2012 to the present day, and previously held the same position from 1998 to 2001. In 2022 he was awarded a Special Tribute by the Gotham Awards in New York. In 2021 the historic magazine Variety awarded him the International Achievement in Film Award. Both acknowledgments were awarded to La Biennale di Venezia at the same time. Since 2020 he has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which confers the Oscars. Since 2019, he has been listed by Variety as one of the 500 most influential people in the global entertainment industry. In 2000 he was honoured with the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, the cultural acknowledgment of the French Republic. 

Born in Biella in 1950, following his degree in Modern Literature from the Università di Torino with theses on Film History and Criticism, Alberto Barbera began his collaboration with A.I.A.C.E. (the Italian association of friends of arthouse cinema) which he chaired from 1977 to 1989. From 1980 to 1983 he was a critic for the daily newspaper La Gazzetta del Popolo, and since 1982 he has been a member of the Journalists’ Union. He has written for many daily newspapers and periodicals (Città, La Stampa, Essai, Altro Cinema, Bianco & Nero, Cineforum), and collaborated with television and radio programmes such as Cinemascoop (RAI 3), La lampada di Aladino (RAI – DSE), Hollywood Party (Radio3 RAI). In 1982 he began to collaborate with the Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani (now the Torino Film Festival), serving as its Director from 1989 to 1998. From 2002 to 2006 he was the co-director of RING! Festival della Critica in Alessandria. In 2002 he became a consultant for the National Museum of Cinema in Turin and from June 2004 to December 2016 served as its Director.