Venice, August, 28th, 2018 (SIGNIS). On August 29th, 2018, the 75th Venice International Film Festival will start at the Venice Lido, until September 8th. For the 70th year, SIGNIS will have an international jury at the Festival, to encourage films that lend expression to a human viewpoint or stimulate debate, raise audience consciousness of the transcendent dimensions of life or portray spiritual values in keeping with the message of the Gospel.

In 1948, the first international Catholic film jury was invited by the festival direction. That year, the first OCIC award went to The Fugitive by John Ford and the first commendation went to Fred Zinneman’s topical and moving story of a Czech mother desperately looking for her young son in the post war rubble of Europe, The Search. The legitimacy of the OCIC, and now SIGNIS, jury is based on the fact that it is the only international Catholic jury whose decisions and authority are recognized by the Catholic world through the Vatican and by the secular world through UNESCO and the international film world.

In 2017 the SIGNIS jury gave its award to La Villa (The House by the Sea) by Robert Guédiguian (France) and a commendation to the film Foxtrot by Samuel Maoz (Israel/Germany/France).

The members of the 2018 SIGNIS jury are: Magali Van Reeth, France (President), Ivan Giroud, (Cuba), Guido Convents, (Belgium), Massimo Giraldi (Italy) and Sergio Perugini (Italy)