Paola Comencini announced as the recipient of Venice’s Campari Passion for Film Award

La Biennale di Venezia and Campari announce that the Italian production designer Paola Comencini (C’è ancora domani, La bestia nel cuore, Romanzo criminale) will be the recipient of the Campari Passion for Film Award of the 81^st Venice International Film Festival (August 28^th – September 7^th, 2024).

The ceremony for the award to Paola Comencini will take place on Friday 6^th of September in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) at 9.30 pm, before the screening Out of Competition of Il tempo che ci vuole (Italy/France, 110’) by Francesca Comencini, starring Fabrizio Gifuni and Romana Maggiora Vergano, featuring Paola Comencini’s production design.

Alberto Barbera, Director of the Venice International Film Festival, notes, “Throughout her lengthy career as an architect, set designer and costume designer, Paola Comencini has demonstrated a special sensibility in highlighting the distinctive traits of eras and characters, navigating through genres and languages with great rigour and invention. Her remarkable creative spirit allows her to best interpret the spirit of the stories to be brought to the big screen and to enhance each and every character in interior spaces and outdoor environments. Her innate taste supported by an exceptional professionalism have led her to work with filmmakers who differ widely in temperament and style, starting with her father Luigi. In addition to her sisters Cristina and Francesca, she has worked with some of the most important Italian directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Riccardo Milani, Michele Placido, Daniele Luchetti, Stefano Sollima, Carlo Vanzina, as well as Paola Cortellesi for her highly successful debut C’è ancora domani (2023), definitively establishing herself as one of the best costume and set designers in Italian cinema. She has achieved this result through constant dedication and careful study which has always been manifest in the layouts of the sets, in the selection of the fabrics, in the use of often simple props, in the enhancement of every environment. This is the remarkable work of an atelier carried out with meticulous passion, which places her among the finest production designers in the world.”

“We are very proud to confirm the official ‘Campari Passion for Film Award’, created by Campari alongside the Artistic Direction of the Exhibition – announces Alberto Ponchio, Senior Marketing Director Campari Group – Sticking with the main theme that everything comes about through Passion, already understood as a fundamental element for inspiring Creativity, the Prize is aimed at showing an appreciation for the figures who, alongside the director, contribute to excellence when creating cinematic art. This year, in choosing the Italian production designer Paola Comencini, we have rewarded the a profession that is characterised by a distinct aesthetic and artistic sensitivity and the ability to combine passion, craft work, innovation, always looking ahead.”

The Campari Passion for Film Award, instituted six years ago at the 75^th Venice Film Festival, seeks to highlight the remarkable contribution given by the director’s closest collaborators to the fulfillment of the artistic project that each film represents. Passion for Film attributes this award to these professional figures, who are more than just craftsmen: they are artists and co-authors of the films to which they offer the gift of their unparalleled talent. Over the years, the award has been given to the American film editor Bob Murawski, to the Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi, to the American jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, to the British production designer Marcus Rowland, to the American artist and costume designer Arianne Phillips, and last year the Italian production designer Tonino Zera.