A convertible with an “80” license plate traveling through an imaginative landscape. Lorenzo Mattotti’s poster speaks clearly: the upcoming Venice Film Festival is confidently projecting itself into the future. Mattotti, who in 2019 successfully presented his first animated feature, La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia, inspired by Dino Buzzati’s fable, is now signing the official image for the sixth year and the festival’s theme animated video for the fifth year. “I played with graphics,” the artist emphasizes, “to represent new worlds to explore… We are convinced that there is a great future for cinema that looks far ahead and ventures down new paths.”
In this near future of the festival, there is an edition that is far from intimidated by the strike currently taking place in Hollywood, which seems to have only “snatched” the opening film from the Lido. Instead of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, will take its place. While there may be a lack of American stars on the red carpet, there is certainly no shortage of cinema in Alberto Barbera and his team’s program. With great directors, diverse geographies, and societies to explore, genre mixtures, stories, and visions that promise to surprise us for the eightieth time.
Salvatore Todaro commands the submarine Cappellini of the Royal Italian Navy. In October 1940, while navigating in the Atlantic at night, he encounters an unlit merchant ship, the Kabalo, of Belgian nationality, which suddenly opens fire on the submarine. A brief and violent b...
The Daily, Live from the Lido
We, too, at Venezia News have embarked on that convertible to prepare the upcoming official Daily of the Venice Film Festival, even richer in content, interviews, features, and columns spanning from soundtracks to literary and artistic inspirations that have influenced the films of Venezia 80. With our editorial team now based on the Lido, we will be eyes and ears to report what happens, perhaps even behind the scenes of this dazzling whirlwind of images. Our Daily will, as always, be distributed every day within the festival spaces and especially at the entrances to the theaters from early morning, providing timely live coverage of the festival.
On the new “Venezia News”, our personal take on the Festival
But before the Daily, the new issue of Venezia News will hit the newsstands and selected points around the city. This issue will include an interview with Alberto Barbera (this time the director spared no effort, giving us a true journey through ‘his’ festival), a special dedicated to the 80 editions, with vivid memories from those who experienced the festival firsthand over the years, and a 40-page insert entirely devoted to the Festival, produced by our editorial team to offer an overview of everything you really shouldn’t miss this year.
The Festival Online
We will follow the Festival day by day from our dedicated website, where you can already browse through the films in various sections, discover how the Biennale intends to pay tribute to Gina Lollobrigida on the pre-opening day, take a look at the amazing Jury (they truly are this year!) who will have the privilege but also the responsibility of choosing the Best of all. While waiting to see his cult film in the Classics section (The Exorcist) and his last work (The Mutiny on the Caine: Court-Martial), we have also reserved a tribute to William Friedkin, who passed away just before a Festival he loved, was loved by, and was always welcomed at, as one would welcome a great.
From Wednesday, August 30th, until the closing on Saturday, September 9th, at the stroke of midnight, we will open a window on each day of the Festival, with the program of press conferences and official screenings, as well as in-depth features, interviews, and curiosities about the films, the protagonists, and the ongoing events. Subscribers to our Newsletter (subscribe now) will also receive an exclusive, browsable, and downloadable version of the Daily in the early morning.
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to all those who tirelessly create, realize, invent, spend their energies, time, and resources for the pure love of the seventh art, which often still manages to tell us who we are.
