Lancia, main sponsor of the 65th Venice International Film Festival for the third consecutive year, will also be the Biennale’s special partner for the opening gala this evening where it will roll out a musical and video presentation.

Lancia, main sponsor of the 65th Venice International Film Festival for the third consecutive year, will also be the Biennale’s special partner for the opening gala this evening. The gala dinner, to be held on the beach of the Hotel Westin Excelsior on Venice’s Lido, will witness the launch of the charity operation “The Sign of Difference”. At the end of the dinner, Lancia’s participation will be highlighted by a musical and visual performance, in keeping with its vision of the cinema and the charitable initiative.

The Festival shows off on LanciaChannel TV

This year, Venice’s red carpet will be rolled out on the Web at http://www.lanciachannel.tv/, introducing Lancia’s new Web channel, where visitors can follow the main events in the worlds of cinema, fashion, etc. On August 4^th the channel began to broadcast videos of the most important moments of the 2007 Venice Film Festival. On August 28^th visitors to http://www.lanciachannel.tv/ will be able to watch videos of the main red carpet moments during Venice 2008, along with exclusive photos and news, under the section entitled “THE FESTIVAL SHOWS OFF ON LANCIACHANNEL.TV!!!”

Lancia Café on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior

After the opening gala, Lancia’s presence at the Festival will focus on Lancia Café, located on the terrace of the Hotel Westin Excelsior, returning after last year’s success, this time with leading partners drawn from Italian brands such as Martini, Lavazza, San Pellegrino, and Brandolini d’Adda, along with young trendsetters such as Heineken and the magazine Posh. Spike Lee, Ennio Morricone, Julian Schnabel, and Valeria Solarino are only a few of the faces often spotted at Lancia Café, not to mention the rapper Coolio, who had made it his “base of operations”. Top talent, producers, distributors, artists and media will once again be able to rely on a new structure dedicated to their needs, where they can get together in a refined, relaxing, and exclusive environment. The schedule is packed with events, including press conferences, meetings with the delegations of competing films, exclusive parties and cocktails, in addition to a variety of interviews of actors and directors. Noteworthy events include the Delta Happy Hour, every day at 18:30, L’Europeo Cocktail (August 28th), the Turin Film Festival Party (September 1st), the Ciak Party (September 4th), and the reception of the National Union of Cinema Journalists (September 5th).

The Sign of Difference: A Helping Hand for Venice

The Sign of Difference: A Helping Hand for Venice. Lancia will launch an initiative involving a number of movie stars to coincide with the Film Festival. All visitors to Lancia Café will be asked to leave a handprint in a special tile that will then be put up for auction on eBay.

The proceeds will go to SMS VENICE (www.smsvenice.com), an international project launched in July by the Municipality of Venice and the Superintendency, in cooperation with ALA ONLUS and FT & Associati. This campaign is aimed at sensitizing and fundraising through events, communication activities, and the use of technology to restore and protect Venice’s historical centre and Piazza San Marco in particular, considered a part of humankind’s universal artistic heritage. eBay is partnering with Lancia for this initiative.

Lancia sponsors the Venice Movie Stars competition

This year, Lancia is also supporting the Venice Movie Stars Award, organised by AQA Communication, currently in its fifth edition. The competition, organised with the cooperation of the Biennale of Venice, originated in an idea by Angelo Quarti, and aims to promote the work of image professionals whose photographs tell the story of the most important moments of the Venice International Film Festival. Over the years the initiative has been greeted with increasing enthusiasm by photographers from all over the world.

50 Lancia vehicles in Venice

This year’s biggest change is the presence of the new Lancia Delta in the fleet of 50 vehicles (compared to 30 last year) that Lancia will make available to the Festival. In addition to the Delta, with a two-tone black exterior and beige leather upholstery, there will be the most recent versions of the Musa and Phedra. All of the flagship vehicles will be marked by Golden Lion effigy and the Italian flag to each side, in addition to the Festival’s logo on the sides of the bodies. These prestigious automobiles, the finest representation of Italian elegance, will accompany film celebrities and stars as they travel to the Lido and make their red carpet appearances. Lancia will also provide vehicles to the other two main sponsors, Jaeger Le Coultre and L'Oréal, in addition to Quintessentially.

Lancia and the cinema, from silent films from Turin to Angels and Demons

The relationship between Lancia and the cinema is a very close one and dates back to the early 20^th century. In over a century, countless films of various genres from comedy to drama have featured Lancia vehicles, often making them into an essential part of their screenplays.

The current lineup has also played a leading role in Italian and foreign films. The most recent creation, the Lancia Delta, was launched internationally in a spot that is more than just a spot; rather, it is a bona fide short film, with a real actor, Richard Gere, and a soundtrack composed by a master of the genre, Ennio Morricone.

Currently, Lancia Delta is busy on the set of Sony’s new blockbuster movie Angels and Demons, inspired by Dan Brown’s bestseller of the same name, following in the footsteps of The Da Vinci Code, also directed by Ron Howard and featuring Tom Hanks in the role of professor Langdon. The product placement has been made in collaboration with the agency Armosia. Many spectators had the opportunity to admire them together on the streets of central Rome in June. The Deltas are currently on the tightly sealed set in Los Angeles.

A Lancia Delta on Palazzo Ducale

For the entire duration of the Film Festival, the façade of Palazzo Ducale, currently undergoing restoration, will be decorated with an enormous poster drawn from the Lancia Delta campaign and adapted to fit the cinema theme.

Lancia supports the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Lancia is the corporate sponsor of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Italian branch of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York, and therefore part of the prestigious association “Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim”, a group of associated companies that provide long-term support for exhibit-related projects and the packed schedule of activities hosted by the Venetian Collection.