The Venice Film Festival is wrapping up the first COVID-era international cinema showcase with critics, filmmakers and actors alike cheering organizers for having dared to hold the festival amid a pandemic.
Director Ann Hui, right, and Jury President Cate Blanchett greet one another by touching elbows upon arrival at the red carpet for the Lifetime Achievement award for Ann Hui during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020.
Eighteen films were vying for the top awards in the main competition, including a record eight directed by women. Cate Blanchett headed the main jury.That the 10-day festival happened at all was hardly a given, after northern Italy in late February became ground zero of the coronavivrus outbreak in Europe. Once the virus spread, the Cannes Film Festival was canceled outright, and other big international festivals in Toronto and New York opted to go mostly online.
While it’s too soon to say if the measures worked due to COVID-19′s long incubation period, there were no immediate reports of infections among festival-goers. Compliance with mask mandates and social-distancing requirements appeared to be high. By all indications, movie lovers inside the industry and out appreciated the effort and the symbolic significance of the world’s oldest film festival charting the path forward on getting people back into movie theaters.“It’s a moment of rebirth for everyone, for the whole world,” said Emma Dante, the Italian director of the in-competition “The Macaluso Sisters.
Jones noted that the lineup of films lacked the usual Hollywood blockbusters - think “La La Land,” and “The Shape of Water” — that in recent years have used Venice as a springboard to Oscar fame. While the festival featured films from Iran, India, Australia and beyond, it was heavily European.
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