The Venice Film Festival has only continued to garner momentum under longtime festival director Alberto Barbera, who in recent years has managed to lure significant star power — from Lady Gaga to J…
, who in recent years has managed to lure significant star power — from Lady Gaga to Joaquin Phoenix to Timothée Chalamet to Harry Styles — to the Lido. So imagine the heartbreak and fear last month when — just as Barbera was about to lock in one of his strongest lineups yet — he learned that, as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike, many movie stars wouldn’t be able to make the trek to Italy this year.
Then came word that Netflix, a huge supporter of Venice — bailing on rival Cannes in 2018 over a festival rule that films in the Croisette competition must have French theatrical distribution — was still in. The streaming giant will be launching five films, even without their A-list actors, from the Lido, including David Fincher’s “The Killer,” starring Michael Fassbender as a cold-blooded hitman undergoing a moral crisis, and “Maestro,” in which Cooper plays conductor Leonard Bernstein.
DuVernay also served as a producer of the film through her Array Filmworks, with financing from private equity fund J4A, which is dedicated to social justice projects. She’ll be honored by international AIDS organization amfAR with its Award of Inspiration Sept. 3. All told, there are 82 features films from 54 countries unspooling on the Lido in the official selection, roughly 30% directed by women. Barbera says this ratio reflects roughly the same percentage of films submitted by female directors this year and reps an increase in female representation compared with past editions.
“Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved. With him, I don’t see where the issue is,” says Barbera, referring to the fact that Allen has never been charged for child sexual abuse allegations from his now-grown daughter, Dylan, allegations that Allen denies. Polanski pled guilty in 1977 to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor but fled the U.S. before sentencing in that case. He lives and moves freely between Switzerland, France and his native Poland.
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