Italy's 'Quality Screens' Organization to Award New Italy-Only Prize in Venice

ROME – The committee that heads the Schermi di Qualita organization, a group that promotes the distribution of what it called “quality European and Italian films,” will create a new collateral prize that will get off the ground at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

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The group said it will use a three-person jury made up Schermi di Qualita leadership that will select a winner from among the Italian-made films screening in the official selection, the Horizons sidebar, and the Venice Days and Critics’ Week autonomous sidebars.

The winning film will be distributed in more than 800 cinemas in Italy that are part of the initiative.

Though it will not bring any different films to the Venice Lido, the prize may help fill part of the void left when the Contracampo Italiano sidebar for Italian films was eliminated for this year’s edition. But there are more than two-dozen Italian films that will screen in the various sections and sidebars that are eligible for the Quality Screens Award.

The 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival runs August 29-Sept. 9.