Venice chief blames Hollywood woes, not festival, for studio absence

ROME: Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera defended on Thursday this year’s lineup, saying the absence of major Hollywood studios and the scarcity of women directors reflect wider industry problems, not his own choices.

The comments come a week after Venice unveiled a programme with virtually no studio-backed U.S. films and just one woman director among the 20 titles competing for the main Golden Lion award, sparking concern about the quality of the programme.

Writing in the Italian daily La Stampa, Barbera said it would be “difficult, if not wrong” to blame Venice for no-show by U.S. studios, arguing that Hollywood was going through a period of upheaval marked by rising costs, falling box office revenues and growing competition from streaming platforms.

“The only major film we could realistically have hoped for was ‘Digger’, which Warner Bros decided to release by relying on the element of surprise, bypassing all the autumn festivals,” he wrote, referring to a movie directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu and starring Tom Cruise.

“There simply were no other titles, or they were not ready in time for our dates,” Barbera said.

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Recent editions of Venice and the Cannes Film Festival have benefited from a strong Hollywood presence, with studios and streaming platforms using Europe’s leading festivals to launch awards campaigns and generate publicity for prestige releases.

This year, however, both events have seen a markedly lighter studio footprint.

The 76-year-old Barbera, who has been in charge of the world’s oldest film festival since 2012, and previously led from 1998 to 2001, said it was too early to conclude that Hollywood had abandoned the festival circuit altogether.

“I would be cautious about drawing hasty conclusions regarding the Americans’ decision to stay away from festivals,” he wrote. “Next year we may better understand what new film-promotion strategies there will be, if any.”

Barbera also defended Venice against criticism over the lack of women directors in competition, saying the industry was hindering gender parity.

“It is easy to place responsibility on festivals when the problem lies further upstream,” he wrote, citing barriers for women to entering the profession, funding difficulties and unequal access to production budgets.

The only woman to secure a coveted berth in the main competition was Danish director May el-Toukhy, who will be premiering her drama “Woman Unknown”.

This year’s festival runs from September 2-12. Among the most buzzy titles are “Wild Horse Nine” by Martin McDonagh and tarring John Malkovich, Danny Boyle’s “Ink” about the early days of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and “Possible Love”, the first film in eight years from the Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong.