Nancy Tartaglione
French acting legend Isabelle Huppert, who is president of the Venice Film Festival jury this year, was joined by her panelists as artistic director Alberto Barbera hosted the opening press conference for the 81st running of the event this morning. It’s a different look this year, with no one sporting Writers Guild strike t-shirts à la 2023.
This morning’s session was brief but earnest, with many of the jury members speaking about the concerns around the state of contemporary cinema.
“I’m worried about the things everyone is worried about. Making sure that cinema continues to live because it is very weak now,” Huppert said during the session.
“It’s very difficult to make a film. A film is not just an individual effort. It’s really something we deliver to the world. So I am concerned about whether our world will still connect with people. That’s why the Venice Film Festival is necessary. And that’s why I’m so happy to be here.”
Huppert’s concerns were backed up by American filmmaker Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone), who is head of the Venice Horizons jury, and said she was “relieved” to hear Huppert address the “elephant in the room.”
“We understand that the generations combined in this room need this [festival] to continue telling the stories that aren’t covered in the mainstream,” Granik said. “Festivals are now maybe festivals of defiance. Going against the grain. This festival has 80 years of solidity and mobility. It doesn’t get old and you don’t get stale.”
The latest edition of the world’s oldest film festival kicks off this evening with the world premiere out-of-competition screening of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Buzzy titles in the competition include another sequel from Warner Bros, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, as well as Pablo Larrain’s Angelina Jolie-starrer Maria, Luca Guadagnino’s William S Burroughs’s adaptation Queer with Daniel Craig and Pedro Almodovar’s English-language feature debut, The Room Next Door.
During the presser, Barbera was asked to reflect on last year’s edition, which took place at the height of two Hollywood strikes. His answer was defiant, telling the crowd the festival “didn’t really miss the absence” of actors who didn’t travel to Italy to promote their films.
“There was a lot of concern that the lack of talent might undermine the efficacy of the festival’s machinery which is connected to the strong promotion [opportunities] provided by the festival,” he said.
“But the last edition went really well despite our concerns. Despite the absence of actors, there was so much participation by everyone and the increasing audience.”
Working with Huppert are jury members James Gray — a Silver Lion winner for 1994’s Little Odessa who was last in Venice with 2019’s Ad Astra — Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland (Special Jury Prize winner for last year’s The Green Border), Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi. Together, they will award the main prizes including the Golden Lion for Best Film. Maria is the first title in the competition which begins tomorrow.
Tonight’s opening film is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The festival runs until September 7.