The Venice Film Festival’s board of directors on Friday approved the appointment of Alberto Barbera as artistic director for the years 2025 and 2026, extending his tenure with the organization that he started steering in 2012. Since that time, Barbera helped to solidify Venice as a key player in the fall film festival circuit and Oscar race with splashy premieres of films like “Gravity,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “La La Land” and “The Shape of Water.”

“I felt an immediate understanding with Alberto Barbera and I have great respect for the expertise, professionalism and passion he has demonstrated in the years that he has directed the Venice Film Festival, which have enhanced the prestige of the oldest film festival in the world,” Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the President of La Biennale, said in a statement. “I am extremely pleased that La Biennale will continue down this path with him.”

Born in Biella in 1950, following his degree in Modern Literature from the Università di Torino with theses on Film History and Criticism, Barbera began his collaboration with A.I.A.C.E. (the Italian association of friends of arthouse cinema) which he chaired from 1977 to 1989.

From 1980 to 1983 he was a critic for the daily newspaper La Gazzetta del Popolo, and since 1982 he has been a member of the Journalists’ Union. In 1982 he began to collaborate with the Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani (now the Torino Film Festival), serving as its Director from 1989 to 1998. From 2002 to 2006 he was the co-director of RING! Festival della Critica in Alessandria. In 2002 he became a consultant for the National Museum of Cinema in Turin and from June 2004 to December 2016 served as its Director.