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FILM

Venice award for The Exorcist film-maker

US film-maker William Friedkin, who petrified cinema-goers with The Exorcist, was awarded a lifetime achievement award by organizers of the Venice film festival on Thursday.

Published: 30 August 2013 07:26 CEST
Venice award for The Exorcist film-maker
William Friedkin with his award. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP

Friedkin's groundbreaking 1973 Exorcist won 10 Oscar nominations, scooping two awards. He also won an Oscar for best director for The French Connection.

His most recent film, Killer Joe, a black comedy, was presented at the Venice festival in 2011 and a restored version of his 1977 thriller Sorcerer is being shown at the 70th Venice film festival, which started on Wednesday.

The festival organizers, in awarding Friedkin, 78, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, lauded the Chicago-born director, producer and screenwriter for "basically inventing the modern blockbuster".

"William Friedkin has contributed in a prominent way to the profound renewal of American cinema regarded as 'the New Hollywood'," the festival's website said.

Friedkin was briefly married to French actress Jeanne Moreau in the 1970s. 

In the 1990s he turned his attentions to staging grand opera, notably Verdi's Aida in Italy and Camille Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah in Israel.

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VENICE

Italy to pay €57m compensation over Venice cruise ship ban

The Italian government announced on Friday it would pay 57.5 million euros in compensation to cruise companies affected by the decision to ban large ships from Venice's fragile lagoon.

Published: 3 December 2021 17:41 CET
A cruise ship in St Mark's Basin, Venice.
The decision to limit cruise ship access to the Venice lagoon has come at a cost. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The new rules, which took effect in August, followed years of warnings that the giant floating hotels risked causing irreparable damage to the lagoon city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

READ ALSO: Venice bans large cruise ships from centre after Unesco threat of ‘endangered’ status

Some 30 million euros has been allocated for 2021 for shipping companies who incurred costs in “rescheduling routes and refunding passengers who cancelled trips”, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement.

A further 27.5 million euros – five million this year and the rest in 2022 – was allocated for the terminal operator and related companies, it said.

The decision to ban large cruise ships from the centre of Venice in July came just days before a meeting of the UN’s cultural organisation Unesco, which had proposed adding Venice to a list of endangered heritage sites over inaction on cruise ships.

READ ALSO: Is Venice really banning cruise ships from its lagoon?

Under the government’s plan, cruise ships will not be banned from Venice altogether but the biggest vessels will no longer be able to pass through St Mark’s Basin, St Mark’s Canal or the Giudecca Canal. Instead, they’ll be diverted to the industrial port at Marghera.

But critics of the plan point out that Marghera – which is on the mainland, as opposed to the passenger terminal located in the islands – is still within the Venice lagoon.

Some aspects of the plan remain unclear, as infrastructure at Marghera is still being built. Meanwhile, smaller cruise liners are still allowed through St Mark’s and the Giudecca canals.

Cruise ships provide a huge economic boost to Venice, but activists and residents say the ships contribute to problems caused by ‘overtourism’ and cause large waves that undermine the city’s foundations and harm the fragile ecosystem of its lagoon.

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