The acclaimed Greek-American director and screenwriter Alexander Payne has been named chair of the international competition jury at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
The two-time Oscar winning director will oversee the jury made up of a maximum of nine film professionals, hailing from different countries, who will pick the Golden Lion for best film at the 82nd Venice Festival and the other official awards. The festival runs August 27 to September 6th.
“It’s an enormous honor and joy to serve on the jury at Venice,” Payne said in a statement. “Although I share a filmmaker’s ambivalence about comparing films against one another, I revere the Venice Film Festival’s nearly 100-year history of loudly celebrating film as an art form. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Artistic director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera said ‘Payne belongs to the small circle of filmmakers-cinephiles whose passion for cinema is fueled by knowledge of films of the past and curiosity about contemporary cinema without boundaries or barriers of any kind. These qualities -along with his experience as a screenwriter- make him an ideal candidate to preside over the work of the Venice jury, which is called upon to evaluate films from around the world.”
Payne’s films have racked up a total of 24 Oscar nominations, including four best picture and three best director nominations. His two Oscar wins have come for best adapted screenplay for Sideways (2004), and The Descendants (2011).
Alexander Payne became a Greek citizen during a swearing-in ceremony that took place on February 7, 2022, at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston.
In an announcement, the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles said it “was proud to initiate and complete the application process for Mr. Payne’s Greek citizenship. Welcome to our Greek family!”
Payne is best known for the films Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013) and Downsizing (2017). They are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.
Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Peggy and George Payne, who were restaurant owners.
His father is of Greek and German descent, and his mother is of Greek ancestry. Payne’s paternal grandfather, Nicholas “Nick” Payne, anglicized his last name from “Papadopoulos.” His family comes from three areas in Greece: the island of Syros, Livadia, and Aegio.
In an interview on Canadian television, Payne talked extensively about his Greek roots.
“I am a Greek from Omaha. My grandfather arrived in Omaha around 1912 still named Nikos Papadopoulos. There had been an anti-Greek riot, so by 1915, he saw fit to change his name and not to simply shorten it to “Pappas” as a lot of Greeks do, but to totally Americanize it.
