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The festival is rightly considered one of the first international events of its type, and receives considerable government support.

The first festival was held on the terrace of the Excelsior Hotel in the Lido of Venice, however it was not yet a festival competition. The films were simply presented to the public, however, despite this fact the 1932 festival boasts films of great merit which later became veritable cinema “classics”. Of special note: Forbidden by the great American director Frank Capra, Grand Hotel by Edmund Goulding, The Champ by King Vidor, the first and inimitable Frakenstein by James Whale, The Devil to Pay! by George Fitzmaurice, Gli uomini, che mascalzoni… by Mario Camerini and À nous la liberté by René Clair. Besides the aforementioned films, the festival included works by other great directors such as Raoul Walsh, Ernst Lubitsch, Nikolaj Ekk, Howard Hawks, Maurice Tourneur and Anatole Litvak.