The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess.

[1][2] The opening film of the festival was Baarìa by Giuseppe Tornatore and the closing film was Chengdu, I Love You by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian.

The international competition jury, chaired by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, awarded the Golden Lion to Lebanon by Samuel Maoz.

[3] The international juries of the 66th Venice International Film Festival were composed as follows:[4][5][6] The following films competed for the Golden Lion:[12] The following films were screened as Out of competition:[13] The following films were selected for the Corto Cortissimo (Short film competition) section:[14] The following films were selected for the Horizons (Orizzonti) section:[15] As part of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2009, which was conferred to John Lasseter and the Directors of Disney-Pixar, the following American animation films were presented:[16] The following films, representing "new trends in Italian cinema", were screened in this section:[17] For this retrospective section on Italian cinema, 39 feature and 26 short films were screened, including documentaries.

[18] The following films were selected for the 24th International Film Critics' Week:[19] The following films were selected for the 6th edition of Venice Days (Giornate Degli Autori) autonomous section:[20][21] The following Official Awards were conferred at the 66th edition of the festival:[3] The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the autonomous sections:[22] The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the official selection:[22]