’Tis the season for film-watching . The major fall film festivals are on their way— Venice , Telluride , Toronto , and New York , in that order—with each serving as a precursor to awards season as films large and small jockey for position and early buzz that (if they’re lucky) they’ll ride all the way to the Oscars in March.
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival, complete with its gondolas and Golden Lions, kicks things off on Wednesday, September 2, with an opening night ceremony honoring George Clooney with a lifetime achievement award, followed by the world premiere of Danny Boyle’s Ink .
Italian film critic Alberto Barbera has served as chief of the Venice Film Festival 19 times over the span of almost three decades. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Barbera highlights the impact a positive reception at a film festival can have on a smaller movie.
Last year the standing ovation for Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab went on for 22 minutes , only cut short because the next film was scheduled to start; otherwise, Barbera says, “it would have simply gone on and on.” The film went on to get nominated for best international film at the Oscars earlier this year. “[The standing ovation], of course, was the spark that ignited all the media interest and interest among everyone who hadn’t seen the film,” Barbera says.
“As soon as people left the theater, the whole world knew there had been an incredible and unprecedented reaction.”
Much has been made about the dearth of Hollywood studio films on the film festival circuit this year. The 79th Cannes Film Festival , which occurred in May, was notably more muted than in years past, with Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve , taking home the Palme d’Or.
However, the lack of titles made room for unexpected films, like Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Los Javis’s La Bola Negra, to soak up all the buzz, turning them from art house films into serious awards contenders overnight. When the Venice Film Festival released its lineup in late July, the conversation was quite familiar: Where were all the major Hollywood movies?