by Alexandria SAGE
What if you threw a film festival and nobody came?
That, in essence, is the challenge …
by Alexandria SAGE What if you threw a film festival and nobody came? That, in essence, is the challenge facing organizers of this year’s Venice Film Festival, the glamorous annual competition where stars, critics, photographers, and industry executives mingle on the bustling Lido, overlooking sandy beaches and the blue Adriatic. Provided, of course, it’s a normal year. But in 2020, the world’s oldest film festival is forced to walk a tightrope between preserving its luster as the premier launchpad for Academy Award-winning films, while safely navigating the coronavirus crisis and averting the controversy over gender inequality that has dogged it in the past. Opening Wednesday and continuing until September 12, the prestigious event now in its 77th year will be the first international film festival since the pandemic shuttered competitions around the world. It has put in place a host of safety measures — from limited seating to thermal scanners, to a fan-free red carpet — to protect attendees as Covid-19 cases continue to climb in Italy and around the world. In July, festival director Alberto Barbera declared the event “saved” as he announced the 18 films among the approximately 60 presented that would vie for the top award, the Golden Lion. He promised that the festival would preserve the “liveliness of contemporary cinema”. Despite its scaled-down size with theatre capacity reduced by about half, La Biennale di Venezia takes on greater importance this year due to the cancellation of rival film festivals across the globe, among them the glitzy Cannes Film Festival on the Cote d’Azur in France.
