The Venice Film Festival has announced an update to prizes for the competitive Orizzonti (Horizons) section.

The Venice Film Festival has announced an update to prizes for the competitive Orizzonti (Horizons) section. The changes are a follow up to the festival’s recent revamp of Orizzonti that aim to reinforce the section’s value as a creative laboratory. As of the 67th edition of the festival, the official Orizzonti awards are:

  • Orizzonti Award for full-length films
  • Special Jury Orizzonti Prize for full-length films
  • Orizzonti Award for short films
  • Orizzonti Award for medium-length films

The Biennale recently announced the section would include “extra format” works, in essence, films that fall short of one hour’s length or exceed two hours — while the section also embraces directors who are trained in creative fields other than cinema. With this rationale, the Biennale aims to create a type of creative “laboratory” with the section that allows for “different artistic languages.”

Orizzionti was initially launched in 2004 with a focus on new trends in world cinema

With the expansion, the section will absorb the festival’s previous Cortocortissimo section (short films) and all the Special Events programming.

The four official Venice Film Festival sections are now Venezia 67, the traditional international competition, which includes a jury awarding the Golden Lion and other prizes; Out of Competition, made up of significant films of the year by directors of recognized importance; Orizzonti, the competitive section dedicated to new currents in world cinema and which is now open to short films; and Controcampo italiano, dedicated to new trends in Italian cinema with a jury awarding the Controcampo italiano prize.

The 67th Venice Film Festival will run Sept. 1-11.