The Venice Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica) takes place every year in late August/early September on the Lido di Venezia in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, in Venice, Italy.

Its main award is the "Leone d'Oro" (Golden Lion). Recently, a new award has been added, the San Marco Award for the best film in the "controcorrente" section.

The Venice Film Festival is part of the Venice Biennale, a major biennial exhibition and festival for contemporary art.

The festival in 2004 held from 1 September to 11 September was the 61st.

Golden Lion winners

Year	Film	Director
2004	Vera Drake	Mike Leigh
2003	Vozvrashcheniye (The Return)	Andrey Zvyaguintsev
2002	The Magdalene Sisters	Peter Mullan
2001	Monsoon Wedding	Mira Nair
2000	The Circle (Dayereh)	Jafar Panahi
1999	Yi ge dou bu neng shao (Not One Less)	Zhang Yimou
1998	Cos� ridevano (The Way We Laughed)	Gianni Amelio
1997	Hana-bi (Fireworks)	Takeshi Kitano
1996	Michael Collins	Neil Jordan
1995	Xich lo (Cyclo)	Anh Hung Tran
1994	Aiqing wansui (Vive L'Amour)	Tsai Ming-Liang
1994	Pred dozhdot (Before The Rain)	Milcho Manchevski
1993	Short Cuts	Robert Altman
1993	Trois Couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue)	Krzysztof Kieslowski
1992	Qui Ju da guan si (The Story Of Qui Ju)	Zhang Yimou
1991	Urga (Close To Eden)	Nikita Mikhalkov
1990	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead	Tom Stoppard
1989	Beiqing chengshi (A City of Sadness)	Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1988	La Leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend Of The Holy Drinker)	Ermano Olmi
1987	Au revoir les enfants	Louis Malle
1986	Le Rayon vert (The Green Ray)	Eric Rohmer
1985	Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond)	Agn�s Varda

External links

• Venice Film Festival (http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/)

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