With most of the film festivals in the first half of 2020 either canceled or postponed already, the next big event on the calendar is the Venice Film Festival in early September. And up until now, the idea that the Italian event would continue as planned, even with COVID-19 still a major issue all around the world, was in doubt. However, according to the government, the 2020 Venice Film Festival will happen.
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Variety is reporting that Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto (the region that includes Venice), stated that the Venice Film Festival will go on as planned beginning on September 2. The declaration comes after many wondered about the double-booking of the Venice Biennale (the location of the festival), as the Biennale of Architecture was also scheduled for the same time period. However, that event has been postponed until 2021, paving the way for the film festival to commence in early September.
Of course, Zaia also said that the film festival would likely include fewer entries in 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc. This is a sentiment that had previously been mentioned by Alberto Barbera, the man in charge of the Venice Film Festival.
It should also be noted that festival organizers have been confident that the event will go on as planned, but they have fallen short of declaring that it definitely will happen. And even with government approval, there could always be the decision to cancel the festival or postpone it for a later time. Just recently, it was reported that Barbera and the other festival officials sent out a letter to those people likely to attend the festival to gauge their interest in attending the public event in the fall. The survey asked about people’s interest in showing films, as well as attending press events and having the actors and filmmakers in-person to promote.
So, it’s obvious that the organizers have yet to officially declare that Venice will happen in September. But at least they have the go-ahead from the governor.