The 2020 edition of Venice Film Festival to go ahead in September

Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial

The Venice Film Festival will go ahead as planned this fall, said the region’s Governor on May 24. Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto, said the world’s longest-running film festival, which was due to take place Sept. 2- Sept 12, is still on.

The official’s confirmation comes days after the Venice Biennale, which oversees the film festival among a number of other arts events, moved its Biennale of Architecture to 2021, but maintained the film festival’s fall dates. Previously, architecture and film festivals were meant to overlap.

Zaia said that the Biennale of Architecture was postponed due to complications in constructing the necessary pavilions. The film festival will proceed, although he warned that there will likely be fewer films this year.

Venice surveyed a wide range of film industry executives in early May to ask for concerns and suggestions about the upcoming edition, as reported by Variety.

The letter, which was signed by Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera, was meant to gauge how many filmmakers, actors, and producers are willing to attend the fest.

“We know that it would be simply impossible to plan a festival without knowing if you all are willing to use the Festival to give a new start and a strong sign for keeping cinema alive, even in these difficult times,” wrote Barbera.

The letter also asked producers and sales agents about the concrete possibility of bringing talent to accompany the invited films.

Evidently, organizers are now confident that the fest is able to go ahead as planned, although the look of the event will be different this year, as public health safeguards must be taken into consideration. The festival has not yet commented on plans for September.

Previously, Venice has declared that it would not go the virtual route but said it was considering a “virtual screening room, using a safe online platform” for those who won’t be able to attend but have been previously accredited.

In January, the festival organizers revealed that actor Cate Blanchett would serve as the jury president.

Italy will reopen its borders for European travelers on June 3, forgoing mandatory quarantine restrictions for inbound travel. The country, which was one among the most hit by a coronavirus in Europe, has slowly come out of lockdown in recent weeks.