PRESS RELEASES

August 24, 2006: Venice Film Festival to declare solidarity with Beirut Film Festival

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La Biennale di Venezia / 63rd Venice Film Festival /

Presentation of the 7th Beirut International Film Festival (October 4th-11th 2006)

The 7th edition of the Beirut International Film Festival will take place from October 4th to 11th 2006 � after a break of three years and despite the dramatic situation in the city and in Lebanon generally. It will be presented on Monday, September 4th 2006, at 6 p.m., in the Press Conference Room on the 3rd floor of the Palazzo del Casin�, during the 63rd Venice Film Festival. The Director and the President of the Beirut International Film Festival, Colette Naufal and Alice Edde, will be present, as will the President of La Biennale di Venezia, Davide Croff, and the Director of the 63rd Venice Film Festival, Marco M�ller. The conference will take place in the presence of the Mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari.

Colette Naufal, who has been the Director of the Beirut International Film Festival since 1997, and founder of the Beirut Film Foundation in 2003, has announced that: �Members of the international film community are joining together to sign a statement of solidarity with this year�s Beirut International Film Festival. The statement will mark the launch of the new MakeFilmsNotWar campaign. Starting in Venice, the campaign will be taken to other countries around the world to promote international communication and respect for human rights, rather than hatred, oppression and war.�

The President of La Biennale di Venezia, Davide Croff, declares: �The Venice Film Festival and La Biennale di Venezia can do no less than promote the partnership between two initiatives, which have always believed in a culture of peace�, whilst the Director of the 63rd Venice Film Festival, Marco M�ller, who last year was the recipient of the first �Heart of Sarajevo� Award (for having contributed to creating the Sarajevo Film Festival under the bombs, a symbol of peace in wartime), adds: �Festivals can also act as platforms for dialogue and tools of mutual awareness and understanding. Helping the revival of the Beirut Film Festival, after a hiatus of three years, represents an important signal that can only accelerate the peace process. To take the decision of organizing a festival in Beirut means stating the possibility of an immediate return to normality, to civilised life.�

The MakeFilmsNotWar peace campaign, organized by the Lee and Gund Foundation, which finances the Beirut Festival, has sent this declaration of support to the Biennale: �Despite the wide-scale bombing and devastation of Lebanon's infrastructure, the 7th Beirut International Film Festival will still take place as planned from October 4th-11th 2006. In solidarity with the Beirut Festival, we urge fellow filmmakers to attend and support efforts to promote peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction.�

The first Beirut Festival was held in 1997. Over the years, 18 to 20 international films have had their regional premiere presented there, alongside a competition for Middle Eastern feature length and short films. The Festival also organizes a competition for screenplays open to Middle Eastern filmmakers.