61st Venice International Film Festival
The 61st annual Venice International Film Festival was the 2004 edition of the Venice International Film Festival, held between 1 and 11 September 2004. The festival opened with Steven Spielberg's The Terminal, and closed with Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy. The Golden Lion was awarded to Vera Drake, directed by Mike Leigh.
Festival poster | |
| Opening film | The Terminal by Steven Spielberg |
|---|---|
| Closing film | Steamboy by Katsuhiro Otomo |
| Location | Venice, Italy |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Awards | Golden Lion: Vera Drake |
| Festival date | 1–11 September 2004 |
| Website | Website |
On this edition, a new independent section, Venice Days (Giornate degli autori), was created "for free cinema, new talents and new stories". This section is organized by the ANAC (National Association of Cinematographic Authors) and the API (Independent Authors & Producers).
Also in this edition, The Secret History of Italian Cinema was launched, a new official retrospective section, with the aim of restoring and systematically rediscovering sides of the Italian cinema that have been "forgotten, invisible, unknown or misunderstood". The retrospective was planned for the following four editions (61st to 64th editions), later was extended with the These Phantoms: Italian Cinema Rediscovered (65th edition), and the Italian Comedy Retrospective (66th edition). The Fondazione Prada was the main sponsor/partner of this section.