At least since the publication of his book Hope For Film in 2015, Ted Hope has been one of the most popular voices within the international film industry. After an extensive career as producer working alongside directors such as Ang Lee, Todd Solondz and Michel Gondry, Hope rose through the ranks of the film industry becoming Head of the film division of Amazon Studios, before returning to the independent world and founding Double Hope Films production company together with his wife, Vanessa Hope.
Vanessa boasts a long career as a producer in the documentary sector, which began under the aegis of Chantal Akerman and continued by focusing on the Asian continent. She has directed five feature films, including Invisible Nation, presented at more than twenty festivals around the world and having its Italian premiere at this year’s Biografilm.
“It is a bit of a tradition of our festival to reward power couples, because very often cinema is a collective work that also becomes a family affair. We are therefore delighted this year, after having previously assigned this award to Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, and to Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia, to present the Celebration of Lives Award 2024 to Ted and Vanessa Hope.”
We are delighted to award the Celebration of Lives 2024 to Olivier Assayas, director, and well-rounded cinema man, much loved by the Italian audience, on the Italian premiere of his most autobiographical film, Hors du Temps, a story made up of sharp observations on contemporaneity but also of journeys through memory and across fixed memories of the places of his childhood. Film critic, tireless communicator, attentive teacher, he has made his cinema the exploration of the journey of contemporary man in the global village, by capturing moments, fragments, places, and people in a totally personal style.
