“Preparing Venice 78 has been particularly exhausting, but soon became exciting. We were worried that the pandemic would affect the amount and quality of the productions. But it was the opposite. Production is impressively increased and with great quality. We excluded movies that normally would have competed. It’s very encouraging, even thinking about the future. The movie industry is far from being sick. Cinema is never been so alive, vital, curious, interesting and original”. Alberto Barbera, Artistic Director of Venice Film Festival summarizes in this way the 78th edition starting today. “There’s a kind of productive and economic renaissance – Barbera explains. – Because of the global competition quality has become fundamental. During the last few months, an incredible amount of resources have been invested in the industry. I believe it’s because streaming platforms need to have always new content. Major producers can afford to pay in advance the best professionals because they want to be sure to have them when necessary”.
Barbera and his staff spent “many months during the lockdown watching movies at home all day and making infinite meetings on Zoom”, aware of “being responsible for the actual restart. Last year we’ve been deceived, then the new covid waves put us all on lockdown again. Now is different: production must keep working, distributors can’t keep the movie frozen waiting for a better moment to release it. And everybody needs the promotion that Venice can offer”. Barbera explains in this way the very rich program that he believes will attract “an increase of the attendance of more than 50% than last year. The selection is equally composed of great authors and Hollywood movies and the authors we discovered during the years thanks to our exploration that never stopped and that is the real meaning of our job”. Among them the Artistic Director chooses (“heartbreaking, I would love to quote them all”) Eric Gravel’s A plein temps, a French production selected for Orizzonti. “You’ll see, it will surprise you”.
