Coronavirus: Venice festival aiming to refloat film industry
Parties are banned and temperature checks compulsory but the Venice Film Festival aims to relaunch the cinema industry in style.
Parties are banned, temperature checks are compulsory and film stars will be swabbed but the Venice Film Festival is aiming to relaunch the cinema industry in style.
The stars Cate Blanchett and Matt Dillon and directors Pedro Almodovar and Oliver Stone are expected to join Italian actress Anna Foglietta — the master of ceremonies — as the world’s oldest film festival becomes the first to relaunch in the flesh after Cannes went virtual in June amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We want to show it can be done, to be a laboratory for other festivals,” Alberto Barbera, its director, said. “Cinema must restart if it is to survive — streaming kept us alive during lockdown but we cannot do without cinema. Venice will be a sign of optimism and an invitation to not give in to fear.”
Safety measures will be tight, with every other seat in viewing rooms left empty while masks are to be worn at all times.
A wall has been erected alongside the red carpet to keep fans from breathing on actors. All guests from outside Europe must take a virus test before flying and again on arrival, and a third time if they stay longer than five days in Venice.
Organised in July when Italy’s outbreak was in retreat, the 10-day festival arrives as cases are rising again. Luca Zaia, governor of the Veneto region, said: “We are getting back to normality without lowering our guard.”
Lee Marshall, a British film critic covering the festival for Screen International, said he was both upbeat and nervous. “I am torn — I feel very excited to be back at a festival but also uncertain and wary about meeting people from all over the world,” he said. “But if it can work anywhere it will be here, since the festival is in the circumscribed area of the Lido island in Venice, while Cannes and the Berlin festival are in the middle of cities.”
The Times
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