Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has insisted the US actors and writers’ strikes will have a “quite modest” impact on this year’s festival.
At a press conference to announce the festival line-up today, Barbera admitted the past week of the selection process had been “quite troubled” as a result of the strike and that it was difficult to finalise the programme.
He added, however, that “luckily enough the consequences of this strike - which has very good motivations we can agree to - the impact is quite modest on our festival.”
Barbera claimed the only movie Venice had lost that it had planned to schedule was R-rated romantic drama and opening title Challengers by Luca Guadagnino, starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, after its cinema release was postponed to April 2024 by MGM and Warner Bros.
Venice is opening instead with World War II submarine drama Commandante by Italian director Eduardo de Angelis.
However, US studio films are conspicuous by their absence in this year’s line-up, while the Competition is heavy on European, particularly Italian, features. Among the streamers, only Netflix has a major presence and is presenting films including David Fincher’s The Killer and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
Barbera said: “The other American movies we have invited have been confirmed and will be present in the programme of the festival. So, allow me to thank the producers and directors who have decided to confirm their commitment with us.”
Barbera added: “A few stars will not be with us. Actors and actresses - members of SAG will not be present.”
One of the stars that he cited who will not be present is Emma Stone, who appears in Competition title Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos, although it is clear others will follow, including her co-star Mark Ruffalo who has been vocal in his support of the SAG-AFTRA strike on social media.
“We will have, however, actors and actresses who have worked in productions that are fully independent and they are numerous in Venice, so we hope the red carpet won’t be so empty as some people have announced in the last few days,” said Barbera.
These could include stars who appear in independently produced titles selected for Competition such as Penelope Cruz and Adam Driver (Michael Mann’s Ferrari), Jessica Chastain and Peter Saarsgard (Michael Franco’s Memory) and Lily James and Willem Dafoe (Saverio Costanzo’s Finalmente l’Alba).
Barbera added that Venice will be “a festival fully representative of contemporary cinema.” He said that 54 countries have films playing across the festival’s official selections.
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