“We want Venice to be an important launching pad, the opening of the season, the real beginning of the race for the Oscar”.
“The main characteristic of Venice is that we have a really wide range of things in the same lineup,” says Alberto Barbera, the director of the festival.
The last two best picture Oscar-winners have premiered at Venice; Will Damien Chazelle’s newest, La La Land make it a triple crown?
From now until September 10th I am here at Venice, seeing as many of the 55 feature films and tonight I’m seeing a non-Italian debut, Arrival, a movie about aliens and a linguist expert (Amy Adams) recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. You can be sure that I will be concentrating on the Italian ones though, and looking forward to Italian films in competition for the Golden Lion, Giuseppe Piccioni’s Questi Giorni, Roan Johnson’s Piuma, and Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti’s documentary, Spira Mirabilis.
While Alberto Barbara has done a wonderful job of bringing the Venice back into the ranks of the top film festivals, I’ve appreciated his efforts to introduce exciting Italian talent to the world.
“It’s a tradition for Venice to have big Hollywood films, but at the same time, Venice built its prestige on the discovery of new talents and new films and emerging countries, says Barbara.
I Love Italian Everything 