Gravity, the new, much-awaited film directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también, Children of Men), starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is the opening film (Out of Competition) of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (August 28 - September 7, 2013). The Festival is directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.
The world premiere of Gravity will be screened in 3D on August 28th in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido, following the opening ceremony.
Cuarón's history with the festival dates back to 2001, when his film Y tu mamá también won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay (by Carlos and Alfonso Cuarón) and the Marcello Mastroianni Award (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna). Alberto Barbera was also the director of the Festival that year. In 2006, Cuarón's Children of Men won the Golden Osella for Best Cinematography, honoring Emmanuel Lubezki, who is also the Director of Photography on Gravity. And in 2007, Gravity's co-writer Jonás Cuarón premiered his directorial debut Año Uña during Critics' Week in Venice.
Gravity, from Warner Bros. Pictures, is a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. In the film, Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney). But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone - tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth... and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space. The last time Venice opened with a science fiction movie was in 2000 with Space Cowboys by Clint Eastwood, at the 57th Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera.
Cuarón made his first American feature film with the critically acclaimed motion picture adaptation of the beloved children's book A Little Princess (1995), which was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Art Direction, and won the L.A. Film Critics New Generation Award. This was followed in 1998 by a contemporary adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft and Ethan Hawke.
Cuarón next returned to Mexico to direct a Spanish-speaking cast in the funny, provocative and controversial road comedy Y tu mamá también, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (written with his brother Carlos) and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Screenplay. This was followed in 2003 with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the series of phenomenally successful adaptations of author J.K. Rowling's novels; Rowling herself named Cuarón's film as her personal favourite in the series.
Cuar?n's next project, Children of Men, which he co-write with Timothy Sexton, was one of the most talked about films of 2006, and was celebrated by critics and film fans for its ground breaking techniques, including several high-impact tracking shots. The film was nominated for a multitude of awards, including three Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Achievement in Film Editing, and went on to win two BAFTAs for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.
After producing friend Guillermo del Toro's globally acclaimed Pan's Labyrinth (2006), he formed the independent production company Cha Cha Cha with fellow Mexican-born filmmakers del Toro and director Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, which thus far has produced Iñárritu's Academy Awards and BAFTA nominated Biutiful (2010).
