Luca Zaia
President of Veneto Region

At the end of August, Art goes on stage. I’m really pleased to introduce the 30th edition of AsoloArtFilmFestival, now become a worldwide point of reference for films about Art. The privileged point of view on Cinema expands, for the Festival, through different thematic paths which give us back a complete vision of what could be artistic expression; starting with films on art, it goes on with films on artists’ biographies, on architecture and design, until more contemporary expressions of creativity such as Video Art and Computer Art films. It’s really important, moreover, to maintain a specific section for landscape and territory, to remember us that every community develops itself in a specific place and interacts with it, making its identity and embedding its history and its traditions. AsoloArtFilmFestival at the same time opens up to the world with the Art Shift project, which focuses on experiences from China and Taiwan. It also looks at youth, with productions from International Schools of Cinema. The Festival brings Art and Cinema among people, but also offers a further call to our Marca Trevigiana. I have to thank all the people who spend their energies to make the Festival possible, wishing everybody “buon cinema” and “buona arte”.

Marino Zorzato
Vice President – Assessor for Culture of Veneto Region

The 30 th edition of AsoloArtFilmFestival confirms the cultural and artistic significance of this international exhibition, to which we must recognize the ability to promote and encourage a diverse and multifaceted look at the state of Italian and international video-art, and to the many expressive potential of audio-visual means. The competition, divided into sections devoted to art, documentary, territory and environment, represents one of the events of international excellence in our Region. The event aims to encourage an integration of film culture, entertainment, local promotion and enhancement of knowledge and capabilities within the public audience, especially the youngest. The programming of this year, responding in particular to the latter objective, devotes beside the plurality of its content a particular attention to school productions, involving students of the best European and international film schools, and stimulating intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue. The success of previous editions is a guarantee of the artistic quality of the proposed program, and of its ability to obtain positive results. In this sense, the initiative reflects the commitment of the Region in promoting initiatives that are capable of enhancing the art, in ways that can have a good involvement of the region and its communities.

Leonardo Muraro
President of the Province of Treviso

AsoloArtFilmFestival- International Festival of Film’s on Art and Artists’ Biographies is arrived to the 30th edition: it is a consolidate event and an historic presence in our the territory that has the privilege to drawing the attention of cinema lovers and insiders all over the word, leading the way then traveled successfully by similar festivals like Paris and Montreal. In the splendid setting of Asolo, the “city of a hundred horizons”, in late summer, it widens his eyes on the many facets of contemporary artistic expression. It renews, at the same time, the age-old tradition of hospitality of this land, for artists, men and women of Culture, between the enchanted charm of its architecture and harmony of his views. The Asolo Festival, among many difficulties, has the great merit of having paved a new road. The association AsoloInternationalArtFestival - which has re-founded the festival in 2001 - has the merit of giving fresh impetus to the initiative, making it one of the most famous and exclusive events in cinema panorama. A true international success and the data are clear: to celebrate 30 years of age, it has received 490 works representing 52 nations. The festival is growing in numbers, content and success! The Province of Treviso is glad to support an event of great cultural incentive. I express my best wishes for the 2011 edition of AsoloArtFilmFestival, that is part of the cultural network of the Province of Treviso, RetEventi, with the certainty that it will entertain audiences of all ages and meet the interest of even the toughest critics.

Loredana Baldisser
Sindaco della città di Asolo

Asolo has been all along an International symbol of art and culture and it is now glad to be this year as well the frame and the stage of an important artistic event like AsoloArtFilmFestival, the International Festival of Film on Art and Artist’s Biographies. The event was born in 1973 and reaches this year its 30th edition. Every year more the 500 films from all over the world take part to the contest. In addition to the traditional appointment with art, we can enjoy Festival Fuori, a mirror section of AsoloArtFilmFestival dedicated to exhibitions, performances and various events and that this year will see the presence of Chinese and Taiwanese artists from MoCA Taipei. Along nine days Asolo will be the core of artistic production and cultural debate, strengthening its ancient cosmopolitan vocation that made the town become one of the most favourite place for stand out figures and artists to retire. Culture and entertainment will melt together within a rich programme of events and appointments that will enlighten Asolo, its natural, historical and architectural beauties, know all over the world.

Attilio Zamperoni
President of AIAF

I’m honoured to introduce the 30th Edition of AsoloArtFilmFestival. This year, as always happens before the Festival begins, the mood and the air we can breathe in the city is load of expectations in view of the days that will show to the public the work conceived in the past months. In order to the former Editions, this year there will be something new. The Festival has been found in 1973 and the 2011 Edition will celebrate its 30th anniversary, ten years after its new foundation which followed a pause lasted eight years. The Festival wants to underline the will to maintain its prestige focusing on its history and its role as a locally renowned cultural event. Year by year AsoloArtFilmFestival improves, aiming for the quality of the partnerships it faces to, conceiving dialogues between different Countries, providing links with cultures that can bring freshness and renewal to the city, turning it into an advantaged meeting place between Europe and Asia. I must thank the team that works with so much passion and sacrifice to make the Festival possible, giving to the city of Asolo a universally recognised reputation.

Steve Bisson
Art Director

AsoloArtFilmFestival. 30 years have passed since that bold vision. To deal with art cinema when the thing still interested few, if any, at least in the village. Before all. Before the technology, DVD, digital, computer, internet, blogs, mobile phones, Blockbuster, You Tube, Vimeo, and anything else yet to come. Asolo was there. This year nearly 500 films have come from all over the world to pay tribute to one of the most famous film Festival on art and to enrich AIAF’s video and tape library. More than 5.000 films, and yet there are still people around Asolo wondering why. So let’s give an answer. We must recover the spirit that is behind the Festival and every truly great undertaking: knowing how to look ahead. This is the strength of the Festival. So give youth a chance, in the selection of the films as well as the organization of the event. Make way for sensibility, curiosity, will and desire of a group of young to be there for real. Give way to those who have the strenght to express their ideas. Make room for film schools, computer art, animation, video installations and photography. We think that from these possible contaminations and trajectories there may be new opportunities also for the industries. We are children of an land rich in plants, always at work and in motion. We grew up between warehouses and scrap of countryside. We are open to the world and new languages. This is what is around us and what we address.

Together with Eleonora Duse, muse of the Festival, the 30th edition will be unique and unrepeatable, because there is no purer act of investing in those who embodies the future. At this I thought when ‘Zampa’, genius and indefatigable spirit of the Festival, hold out his hand. All this and more you will see in Asolo.