Festival Data:

• Established: 1973
• Genre: Experimental - New Media (click to see)

• Competitive
• Students Section

Festival Website:

Festival Description:

The Biennale, after a dispute in 1968, had abandoned the Art Film Festival and so some years later Flavia Paulon, critic, writer and a significant presence in the Venice Film Festival for 40 years launched this independent Art Film Festival in 1973, acting as its artistic director until 1982, for a total of 10 editions during which the exhibition reached great international success. Supported by the UNESCO, the Asolo Art Film Festival introduced some of the best unpublished works in Italy with the aim to display works of art otherwise unknown to the public, therefore filling the empty spaces left by the film distribution and the television system. The Asolo Festival’s also became a model for other important exhibitions in the world.

To guarantee the quality of the Festival, Flavia Paulon had invited well-known people from the cinema and visual arts field such as: the art critics Guido Perocco, Umbro Apollonio, François Le Targat, the cinema critics Mario Verdone, Nedo Ivaldi, the famous french art dealer Aimé Maeght, the Belgian film director Henri Stork. Enrico Fulchignoni, the chairman of the International Cinema and Television Council became a permanent member of the jury. Even the selection of films for the competition was preceded by an accurate and systematic research, that Flavia Paulon personally handled. The selection was so rigorous and the quality level so elevated, that after just a few editions, the Festival’s prestige became known worldwide. Glancing at the list of over four hundred film titles that competed during the first ten years of the Festival, we see the names of famous film directors and artists such as: Alain Resnais, Andrej Tarkovskij, Jean Rouch, Henri Stork, Luciano Emmer, Giorgio Treves, Fabrizio Plessi, Gaetano Pesci, Luca Verdone. The Festival distinguished itself right from the first edition where Andrej Tarkovskij was awarded the Gran Premio Asolo for his “Andrei Rubliëv”, a film on the life of this famous Russian artist, author of the best 15th century miniature paintings.

In the 90’s the Asolo festival was interrupted, then recreated in the year 2001 as “Asolo Art Film Festival”, and in 2002 A.I.A.F. – Asolo International Art Festival was formed, a non-profit association whose main goal is to bring back to life and further develop this festival and the “Festival Internazionale del Cartone Animato” (today called “Asolo Cartoon Festival”), also established by Flavia Paulon in 1974.

Film Submissions:

• Call for Entry: http:/ / www.asolofilmfestival.it/ en/ festival-2011/