66th Venice International Film Festival
The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was "Baarìa" by Giuseppe Tornatore and the closing film was "Chengdu, I Love You" by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian. The international competition jury, chaired by Ang Lee, awarded the Golden Lion to "Lebanon" by Samuel Maoz. Juries. The international juries of the 66th Venice International Film Festival were composed as follows: Main competition (Venezia 66) Horizons (Orizzonti) Opera Prima  ("Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for a Debut Film) Corto-Cortissimo (Short Film Competition) Controcampo Italiano Official selection. In competition. The following films competed for the Golden Lion: Out of competition. The following films were screened as "Out of competition": Short film competition. The following films were selected for the Short film competition (Corto Cortissimo) section: Horizons. The following films were selected for the Horizons (Orizzonti) section: Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. As part of the "Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2009", which was conferred to John Lasseter and the Directors of Disney-Pixar, the following American animation films were presented : Cortocampo Italiano. The following films, representing "new trends in Italian cinema", were screened in this section: These Phantoms 2. For this retrospective section on Italian cinema, 39 feature and 26 short films were screened, including documentaries. The films were mainly from the period 1946 - 1971, with a few only films going back to the 1930s and reaching up to 2009.This is a list of the fiction feature films screened: Autonomous sections. Venice International Film Critics' Week. The following films were selected for the 24th International Film Critics' Week: Venice Days. The following films were selected for the 6th edition of  Venice Days (Giornate Degli Autori) autonomous section: Awards. Official selection. The following Official Awards were conferred at the 66th edition of the festival: In competition (Venezia 66) Horizons awards (Premi Orizzonti) Lion of the Future Short Film awards (Corto Cortissimo Lion) Controcampo Italiano Special awards Autonomous sections. The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the autonomous sections: Venice International Film Critics' Week Venice Days (Giornati degli Autori) Other collateral awards. The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the official selection: