The Venice Film Festival is expertly positioned to be a launch pad for award season movies thanks to a lineup that is heavy on Hollywood boldface names but also showcases world cinema.
Moreover, the films that made the Venice lineup underscore the increasing competition between Venice, under festival director Alberto Barbera, and the Cannes Film Festival for the buzziest and starriest titles. That’s the analysis from Elsa Keslassy, Variety‘s Paris-based international editor, and Rome-based correspondent Nick Vivarelli as they break down the significance of the festival lineup on the latest episode of “Daily Variety” podcast. The Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 27-Sept. 9.
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“Along with the cinematic cornucopia that the lineup represents in terms of the buzzy titles with the big stars, there’s also another side of the lineup which sees regions like Asia and in particular China represented and also Latin America and also the Arab world,” Vivarelli says. “So I think that what Alberto has managed to do is to couple high profile titles, buzzy titles, with works from lesser represented parts of the world.”
Keslassy noted that the competition among Venice and Cannes is heightened in part because of the changes in the voting body of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. As AMPAS adds more members from outside the U.S., Europe’s major festivals are trying to capitalize on the opportunity to become more important platforms for reaching voters and generating buzz, Keslassy says.
The success of Sean Baker’s “Anora” — the 2024 film that bowed at Cannes, won the Palme d’Or and went all the way to best picture at the Oscars — has seemingly set a new template for awards campaigns.
“In the last couple of years, people were thinking that maybe the power dynamic had shifted in favor of Cannes because they had such big success with ‘Anora’ and a bunch of [Cannes] movies turning up in the best picture race. People thought, well, Hollywood is going to shift and they’re going to start going to Cannes more,” Keslassy says.
“But this year with this lineup, Alberto Barbera has really shown that Venice is still a hugely popular and attractive launch pad for awards season. And the reason why is because AMPAS voters are increasingly outside of the United States. So it really shows that Hollywood players know that in order to court voters outside of the U.S., Venice and Cannes are the top two launch pads,” Keslassy says.
Keslassy also noted that Venice has benefitted greatly from the tussle in recent years between Netflix and Cannes over the eligibility of Netflix titles that do not get traditional theatrical releases.
“We have to say that Venice benefited in a huge way from the clash between Cannes and Netflix because ever since Cannes decided that they could not welcome Netflix movies in competition because of windowing rules, Venice took away Netflix and that’s been a huge draw for them because all of a sudden they got all the Netflix movies,” she says.
(Pictured: Venice festival director Alberto Barbera, right, and festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the lineup.)
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