Over halfway through its 2023 edition, Venice Film Festival has posted increased admissions, across its public tickets, subscription passes and number of theatre admissions.
Statistics released by the festival from the first five days (Wednesday August 30 to Sunday September 3 inclusive) show 35,496 public tickets sold – up 9% on 2022. This includes 6,375 subscription passes – a 17% increase on last year.
Total theatre admissions – a combination of single ticket entrances, subscription passes and press and industry entrances – is at 114,851, up a strong 18% on 2022.
The festival has granted 11,328 accreditations for this year – a slight 0.5% increase on last year.
The number of tickets sold “testifies to the great interest that the public continues to demonstrate towards the Venice Film Festival,” said a festival release.
The festival issued a statement along with its statistics, regarding the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
“La Biennale di Venezia hopes that the issues underpinning the ongoing strikes in the international world of entertainment might be resolved for the best as quickly as possible, and that the positive response of audiences on the Lido represents an act of respect and support for the authors and artists who are participating in the strike, and for the Venice Film Festival itself.”
The strikes have been a major talking point at this year’s event, with comment from Adam Driver, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Sofia Coppola and Richard Linklater among others.
Another key topic has been the inclusion of filmmakers Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and Luc Besson in the 2023 edition. The red carpet premiere of Allen’s out-of-competition title Coup de Chance was disrupted last night (September 4) by protestors from Italian feminist activist groups, several of whom were topless.
Venice continues until Saturday, September 9.
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