Rome (AFP)
The 77th Venice Film Festival, to be held in early September, is seen as a "sign of hope" by the cinema world, in a year marked by cinema closings, suspensions of filming and cancellations of festivals due to pandemic.
The painful period, when a virus paralyzed the planet and killed tens of thousands, forced the major productions to postpone their filming and the major festivals to cancel their 2020 editions, starting with the 73rd Cannes Film Festival, normally scheduled to take place in May.
Later in the season, the Venetian meeting is maintained by its organizers, in particular its unavoidable director Alberto Barbera. He confirmed Friday that the 77th edition will be held from September 2 to 12.
"It will be an edition with unique characteristics in its history and for this reason also we will remember it," promised Mr. Barbera, in an announcement on his Instagram account. "We do not know exactly what will be possible," he said, while hoping "to be able to start in the best possible way".
Convinced that at the end of the summer the health situation will be safer, the Mostra team continues to work on the organization of the post-coronavirus festival, to comply with the new rules of security and physical distance.
"In the world of cinema, which is born of ideas and passions, everyone thinks that the best place to celebrate the 7th Art and show its vitality is the oldest festival in the world," Giorgio told AFP. Gosetti, head of the parallel section La Giornata degli Autori (Authors' Day), one of the most innovative during the Mostra.
- "Not stopped working" -
"It is as if we have started from scratch since 1932, when it was created," he said.
Alberto Barbera has however repeatedly ruled out that it could take place online, for virtual spectators. But there are many film buffs and dating lovers who think that the number of films selected, generally more than 200, and of stars invited to the Lido red carpet, will be significantly reduced.
"We haven't stopped working," said Angela Prudenzi, one of the members of the festival's selection committee, saying that this year "all eyes will be on the films, which is a very good thing. "
The list of films to be screened in September remains secret. It is generally published every year at the end of July.
But problem: the Cannes Film Festival will unveil its own selection on Wednesday, a list of 50 to 60 films benefiting from the "Cannes 2020" label, specially created after the cancellation of the 73rd edition.
However, traditionally, each of the two major world film festivals wants the premiere for its selection, and that the films presented be world premieres. What about the films chosen this year by Cannes, and which necessarily will not benefit from the usual influence of the appointment on the Croisette?
Some, like "The French Dispatch" by Wes Anderson and the animated film "Soul" from Pixar studios, had to postpone their release date.
This could also be the case for Nanni Moretti's last feature film, "Tre piani" (Three floors), based on the eponymous novel by the Israeli Eshkol Nevo, and for which the Cannes Festival's general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, showed keen interest.
- A "Cannes 2020" label? -
The reference magazine Hollywood Reporter assures him that the film by the Italian director, a regular at the Croisette where he was webbed (in 2001) and president of the jury (in 2012), should be presented in the City of the Doges.
Often seen as rivals, will Cannes and the Mostra this time, given the exceptional circumstances, manage to get along?
"Since the start of the health crisis, Alberto Barbera and I have been discussing the possibility of a shared gesture for the cinema industry," said Thierry Frémeaux in recent days. "We still don't know what it might look like, but he (Barbera) is open and supportive of the idea," he said.
"Those who have the Cannes label will not be screened in Venice but they can be launched in other festivals, such as Toronto or San Sebastian", tempers Giorgio Gosetti, independent of the Mostra but generally well informed.
For the Mostra, "the challenge now consists in carrying out the festival in an innovative way", notes the documentary filmmaker Piero Cannizzaro.
"The coronavirus forces us to look for new solutions, to put our hands in the dough to obtain another type of bread. In the end, it will be positive", assures the director who, like many of his colleagues, has seen several projects s '' stop because of the pandemic.
"That an industry which is suffering at the moment, like that of the cinema, is restarting is a message of optimism", welcomed meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper Il Manifesto, Giona Nazzaro, general delegate of the Week of the Critique, another of the parallel sections of the Mostra.
© 2020 AFP