Bill Mechanic and Gregg Araki
Two leading figures from the North American cinema world, producer Bill Mechanic and director Gregg Araki, have been selected as presidents of two of the international juries for the 64th Venice Film Festival, respectively for the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize for a First Film, and for the Orizzonti section dedicated to the new film-making trends. The 64th Festival, organised by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Davide Croff, will take place between 29th August and 8th September 2007 and will be directed for the fourth year by Marco Müller.
Bill Mechanicand Gregg Araki are two of the most representative figures of the new US film-scene, where independent spirit and creative originality contribute to give a renewed impulse to the production system.
Bill Mechanicjoined Walt Disney Studios in 1984, where he served as Senior Vice President of Walt Disney Home Video and Vice President of Pay Television Sales, completely revolutionising the policy of distribution and hugely multiplying earnings, which under his tenure passed from $30 million to over $3 billion. As Vice President of Disney’s television sector, he produced numerous programmes nominated for Emmy Awards. In 1993, Mechanic became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a post he held for seven years (1993-2000), overseeing all operations of the studio, from production to distribution, marketing to sales. During his chairmanship, Fox Filmed Entertainment produced films enjoying world-wide success and obtaining 42 Oscar nominations, including Titanic, Braveheart, Moulin Rouge, Boys Don’t Cry, Independence Day and The Full Monty, which won the sought-after statuette. Later, he embarked on a new activity as independent producer for the his company, Pandemonium Films. In 2005, he produced The New World by Terrence Malick and Dark Water, the first English-language film by the Brazilian director, Walter Salles. Currently, he is working on the production of films directed by Hollywood’s leading directors, such as David Fincher, Paul Haggis, Philip Kaufman, Henry Selick and John Woo.
Gregg Arakiis one of the most important directors of the independent cinema in the United States, endowed with a provocative, uncompromising style exploring themes associated with the tribulations of adolescence. His visual style is impregnated with pop culture and is inspired in part by the works of Andy Warhol, Jean-Luc Godard and R.W. Fassbinder. His films have made their presence felt in leading film festivals ever since his early Three Bewildered People in the Night, which was awarded the Bronze Leopard at Locarno in 1987. After having been presented at the Sundance festival, The Living End was highly acclaimed also in Berlin, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Araki has twice been present at the Venice Film Festival, in 1995 with The Doom Generation and in 2004 with Mysterious Skin in the Orizzonti section, where they proved highly popular with both critics and public. His latest work is Smiley Face (2007), an irreverent comedy premiered in January at the latest edition of the Sundance where it was highly acclaimed by critics.
The jury chaired by Bill Mechanic will award the Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis Venice Award for a First Film and US$ 100,000 donated by Aurelio De Laurentiis’s Filmauro, to be divided equally between director and producer, to one of the first-work feature films presented in the various sections of the Festival. The director will also receive a voucher worth Euro 40,000 to be spent on film stock offered by Kodak.
The international jury for Orizzonti, chaired by Gregg Araki, will assign the Orizzonti Prizeand the Orizzonti Doc Prize, chosen from the feature films selected for the Orizzonti section, which aims to provide an overview of the latest trends in cinema, especially as regards film-making that follows the line between fiction and document.
Biographical notes:
Bill Mechanic(United States), producer, joined Walt Disney Studios in 1984, where he served as Senior Vice President of Walt Disney Home Video and Vice President of Pay Television Sales, completely revolutionising the policy of distribution and hugely multiplying earnings, which under his tenure passed from $30 million to over $3 billion. Mechanic ended a five-year relationship between Disney and Warner Bros. for the overseas distribution of the Disney studio’s theatrical product and set up BVI, the first completely new international theatrical distribution organisation in more than three decades. In its first full year of operation, the unit established a record for Disney. As Vice President of Disney’s television sector, he produced numerous programmes nominated for Emmy Awards. In 1993, Mechanic became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a post he held for seven years (1993-2000), overseeing all operations of the studio, from production to distribution, marketing to sales. During his chairmanship, Fox Filmed Entertainment obtained 42 Oscar nominations, including two nominations for best film with Titanic and Braveheart, both of which won the statuette. In 1998, Fox was the number one studio in worldwide box-office gross earnings.
During his tenure at Fox Filmed Entertainment, the company produced such hit films as Titanic (1997), winner of 11 Oscars, Braveheart (1995), winner of five Oscars, Moulin Rouge (2001), winner of two Oscars, Boys Don’t Cry (1999), given its world premiere at the 56th Venice Film Festival, with which Hilary Swank won an Oscar for best actress, Independence Day (1996), winner of an Oscar for best special effects, The Full Monty (1997), Oscar for best soundtrack, Minority Report (2002), winner at the Hollywood Film Festival and candidate for an Oscar for best sound editing, Castaway (2000), candidate for two Oscars, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), X-Men (2000), Entrapment (1999), and many more. In 1998, Fox Music produced five of the top ten selling soundtracks: Titanic, Hope Floats, Doctor Dolittle, Bulworth, and Ally McBeal. In 1999, Mechanic was involved in the events concerning the production of David Fincher’s Fight Club. Mechanic supported the film, and as a result of a difference of opinion with Rupert Murdoch, decided to leave Fox in June 2000. The film was given its world premiere at the 1999 Venice Film Festival and later went on to gross US$ 100 million around the world. Mechanic then decided to start a new activity as independent producer, founding Pandemonium Films, with which he produced Dark Water in 2004, the first English-language film by the Brazilian director, Walter Salles. This was a remake of the Japanese film, Dark Water (Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara, 2002) by Hideo Nakata. In 2005, he produced Terrence Malick’s film, The New World, candidate for an Oscar for best photography (by Emmanuel Lubezki). Currently, three films produced by him are being worked on: Coraline, which combines computer animation and stop motion, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, and written and directed by Henry Selick, the award-winning director of other animated films such as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach, (1996); Torso, directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac), inspired by the cartoon of the same name by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, adapted by scriptwriter Ehren Krueger (The Ring); The Desmond Doss Story, based on a script by Robert Schenkkan, the dramatist who won a Pulitzer prize and wrote the script for Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American. Mechanic has other major projects in the pipeline with Paul Haggis, John Woo and Philip Kaufman.
Gregg Araki (United States) earned a Bachelor’s degree in the History of Cinema at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Masters of Fine Arts in film production at the University of Southern California. Among the films he has directed are Three Bewildered People in the Night (1987), his first work, presented at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won the Bronze Leopard, Critics Prize and Young Cinema Jury Award (“Astonishing. Few low-budget independent films have had such impact since Cassavetes’ Shadows”, LA Times); The Living End (1992), presented at the Sundance, Berlin, New York, Seattle and San Francisco Film Festivals, for which the critics wrote unstinting praise (“Savagely funny, marked by humor, rage and finally, true romantic longing”, Rolling Stone, “Desperate, uproarious, it has the power of honesty and originality”, New York Times); The Long Weekend (O’Despair) (1989), winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Independent Film; and the trilogy on the adolescents of the X Generation: Totally F***ed Up (1994), presented at leading American festivals, The Doom Generation (1995), presented at the 52nd Venice Film Festival, where it was received to great acclaim by the public and critics (“Gorgeously imagined, wonderfully acted. One of the great emerging voices of the American cinema”, LA Weekly), and Nowhere(1997), officially selected at the Sundance Film Festival and Deauville. With a visual style impregnated with pop culture and inspired in part by the works of Andy Warhol and R.W. Fassbinder. Araki is universally considered one of the “champions” of the visionary and provocative American underground. His later works include Splendor (1999), also a Sundance Festival official selection, and Mysterious Skin (2004), presented with great success in the Orizzonti section of the 61st Venice Film Festival which earned Araki an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director, as well as his most recent effort Smiley Face (2007), a comedy which premiered in January at the latest edition of the Sundance Film Festival and is an official selection in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. The film tells the story of a young, idle actress (Anna Faris) who, after having inadvertently swallowed some pastries baked with marijuana, embarks upon a series of misadventures during a day in which everything goes wrong. Araki has also directed the music videos The Jag for the Micronauts and Trash for London Suede, in addition to This Is How the World Ends (2000), a pilot programme for MTV.
