The 67th annual Venice International Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, took place from 1 to 11 September 2010. American film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was the head of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, and the closing film was Julie Taymor's The Tempest. John Woo was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement prior to the start of the Festival. The Golden Lion was awarded to Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola. The Silver Lion Award for Best Director was given to Álex de la Iglesia, for A Sad Trumpet Ballad. In a break with tradition of limiting a film to receiving no more than one major award, the Special Jury Prize and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor (Vincent Gallo) went to the same film, Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing. In the past, no one film had been given two major awards. Representing the jury, American director Quentin Tarantino appealed to Festival head Marco Müller to alter the rules. This rule change continues to be upheld for future editions of the Festival. Following the Festival, Italian film critic Paolo Mereghetti criticized the decisions that the jury made in awarding prizes, and singled out Tarantino, accusing him of favoritism. He denied the charge.

Juries

The international juries of the 67th Venice International Film Festival were composed as follows:

Main Competition (Venezia 67)

Horizons (Orizzonti)

Opera Prima ("Luigi de Laurentis" Award for a Debut Film)

Controcampo Italiano

Persol 3-D

Official Sections

In Competition

The Golden Lion was won by Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola, a film based in part on Coppola's childhood as the daughter of acclaimed American director Francis Ford Coppola. Quentin Tarantino, the president of the jury that awarded the prize, hailed the film saying, "it grew and grew in our hearts, in our minds, in our affections". The jury's decision was unanimous. Upon receiving the award, Coppola paid credit to her father for "teaching me". The Russian film Silent Souls and the Chilean film Post Mortem had been considered favorites for the award. The following films competed for the award:

Out of Competition

The following films were shown out of competition.

Horizons (Orizzonti)

From 2010 on, this section, dedicated to new trends in world cinema, has opened itself to all "extra-format" works, while four new awards have been established for it.

Controcampo Italiano

The following films, representing "new trends in Italian cinema", were screened in this section:

Italian Retrospective

The following films were shown as part of a retrospective section on Italian comedy, titled The State of Things, spanning the years 1937 to 1988.

Independent Sections

Venice International Film Critics' Week

The following films were selected for the 25th International Film Critics' Week:

Venice Days

The following films were selected for the 7th edition of Venice Days (Giornate Degli Autori) autonomous section:

Official Awards

Starting with the 67th edition of the festival, four new awards were established for the Orizzonti section: the Orizzonti Award (for feature films), the Special Jury Orizzonti Prize (for feature films), the Orizzonti Award for Short Experimental Films and the Orizzonti Award for Short/Medium-length Films. The following Official selection awards were conferred at the festival:

In Competition (Venezia 67)

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

Horizons (Orizzonti)

Controcampo Italiano

Luigi de Laurentis Award for a Debut Film

Special Awards

Independent Sections Awards

The following official and collateral awards were conferred to films of the autonomous sections:

Venice International Film Critics' Week

Venice Days (Giornati degli Autori)

Independent Awards

The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the official selection:

FIPRESCI Award

Queer Lion

SIGNIS Award

Francesco Pasinetti Award (SNGCI)

CICAE Award

Leoncino d'oro Agiscuola Award

Cinema for UNICEF Commendation

La Navicella – Venezia Cinema Award

C.I.C.T. UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Award

Biografilm Lancia Award

Nazareno Taddei Award

CinemAvvenire Award

CinemAvvenire "Il cerchio non è rotondo" Award

Equal Opportunity Award

Future Film Festival Digital Award

Brian Award

Arca Cinemagiovani Award

Roberto Bognanno Prize

Lina Mangiacapre Award

UK - Italy Creative Industries Award – Best Innovative Budget

Fondazione Mimmo Rotella

Premio Selezione Cinema.Doc - Official Selection

Golden Mouse

Silver Mouse