Alberto Barbera Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Back in 2013, Scarlett Johansson was on hand at the Venice International Film Festival to premiere her movie “Under the Skin”.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has designated Italian journalist and writer Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as the new president of the Venice Biennale, the foundation that oversees the Venice Film Festival. Buttafuoco (pictured above, left), an openly right-wing member of Italy’s cultural establishment known to be an eclectic thinker, is now set to replace former film producer Roberto Cicutto (pictured, right) at the Biennale’s helm when Cicutto’s four-year mandate expires in March 2024.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy-nominated “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore will play the Venice Film Festival’s master of ceremonies in the upcoming second season of the Italian version of “Call My Agent,” which will also feature a cameo by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. Impacciatore, wearing a red gown, disembarked from a water taxi at the Excelsior Hotel pier on the Venice Lido on Saturday welcomed by Barbera, as cameras rolled for a key scene in the show.

Republic Pictures President Dan Cohen and producer Annabelle Dunne were among the main representatives of William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial at its posthumous world premiere at Venice Film Festival over the weekend.

With 12 reviews so far, Roman Polanski’s latest film, “The Palace,” currently sits at a horrendous 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Polanski hasn’t really had a hit film in a very long time and has also been at the center of controversy for decades, but a 0% is still really rough, with some reviews calling it the worst movie of the year.

When Venice head Alberto Barbera announced his competition lineup in July, he confessed that he and his selection team were surprised to see one submission in their database: a feature project by Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

EXCLUSIVE: Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera is appreciated by many in the film and media industries not only for having cemented Venice as a must-attend blue-ribbon festival, but also for his candour.

Roman Polanski’s Venice Film Festival feature The Palace received a 3 minute ovation tonight at its world premiere screening.

Marta Balaga Venice Film Festival’s red carpet swapped glamour for politics on Saturday, hosting a flash mob in solidarity with the Iranian people, fighting against repression, as well as filmmakers who are being oppressed – and arrested – because of their work. Such as “Leila’s Brothers” director Saeed Roustaee, recently sentenced to six months in prison for showing the film in Cannes. He has also been banned from making movies.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent France’s UFO Distribution has acquired French rights to Venice Horizons entry “An Endless Sunday” by first-time Italian director Alain Parroni from Fandango Sales. The film will segue from Venice to Toronto where it screens in the fest’s Discovery section.

EXCLUSIVE: Roman Polanski’s dark comedy The Palace has sold to a host of key territories ahead of its Venice premiere, with distributors getting behind the film in spite of the controversy surrounding the director. 

Venice Film Festival. But the SAG-AFTRA strike made it impossible for the tennis drama, which MGM pushed to a 2024 release date, to come to the Lido. So instead, Venice kicked off with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis packing a strong political punch. Tensions due to the SAG-AFTRA strike lurked in the background, though without stealing the thunder of strong expectations for this year’s lineup.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent 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 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.

Naman Ramachandran Paris-based sales company Charades has boarded international sales on “Stolen,” the only Indian feature selected at the Venice Film Festival. The film, which will bow within the festival’s Horizons Extra strand, tells the story of the havoc that ensues when opposite worlds collide after two urban young men become embroiled in an impoverished mother’s desperate journey to be reunited with her child. It is described as a “breathtaking action thriller” and the “hidden gem in world cinema” by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Ellise Shafer Venice Film Festival international jury president Damien Chazelle showed support for the ongoing strikes in Hollywood at the event’s first press conference, sporting a “Writers Guild on Strike” shirt and pin. During the jury press conference — which also included artistic director Alberto Barbera, La Biennale president Roberto Cicutto, Orizzonti president Jonas Carpignano and Luigi De Laurentiis president Alice Diop — Chazelle made a powerful statement about the current state of Hollywood, touting “art over content.” “Today is the 121st day that the writers in Hollywood have been on strike; the 48th day that the actors have been on strike,” Chazelle began.

Venice Film Festival jury head Damien Chazelle arrived at the opening press conference sporting a Writers Guild on strike t-shirt and badge today.

The 80thVenice Film Festival gets underway in earnest today and the landmark edition will be unlike any other, taking place as it does against the backdrop of two Hollywood strikes.

The Venice Film Festival is an opportunity to showcase new projects to an audience, and that can be an emotional experience.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will host a Ukrainian Day on Sept. 6 with a series of panels and meetings to support war-torn Ukraine and its film industry.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the international trailer for Roman Polanski’s ensemble dark comedy The Palace ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.

Italian production designer Tonino Zera, whose credits include Roman Polanski’s upcoming drama The Palace, will be feted with the Campari Passion Award at the 80th edition of Venice Film Festival, running from August 30 to September 9.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has cancelled its swanky Women in Cinema gala event at the upcoming Venice Film Festival in response to the ongoing actors’ strike.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Wes Anderson will be honored at the 80th Venice Film Festival, which runs Aug. 30-Sept. 9.

Wes Anderson will be honored with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, running from August 30th to September 9.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety.

Venice Film Festival head Alberto Barbera spoke with Deadline soon after revealing his latest stellar lineup, including movies from David Fincher, Michael Mann, Bradley Cooper, Pablo Larrain, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos and Ava DuVernay.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is in a good mood after Tuesday’s lineup announcement managed to stave off the impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike, something which could have been “devastating” to the event, he says. In the end, the only U.S. film that skipped the Lido is Luca Guadagnino’s Zendaya-starrer “Challengers,” which Barbera says was against Guadagnino’s wishes.

The Venice Film Festival confirmed to us today it is hopeful that movies with SAG-AFTRA ‘interim agreements’ will bring their casts to the Lido.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has shown once again that he is not scared to court controversy.

Refresh for latest…: Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera is announcing the lineup for the event’s 80th edition this morning. We’ll be updating the list as the films are revealed, so check back for more below. You can also watch the livestream here.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival is announcing its lineup on Tuesday from the Italian city, where artistic director Alberto Barbera and La Biennale president Roberto Cicutto are holding a press conference. The Lido’s only previously announced titles in the main selection are the opener, Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ “Comandante” — a lavish anti-war epic featuring local star Pierfrancesco Favino as a heroic Sicilian World War II naval officer — and the closer, Netflix’s survival thriller “Society of the Snow” by Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona. “Comandante” replaced Luca Guadagnino’s sexy sports comedy “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, which had previously been set as the fest’s buzzy opener but was pulled due to promotional complications prompted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The Venice Film Festival will announce the lineup for its 80th edition Tuesday at 11 a.m. European time (3 a.m. PT/6 a.m. ET). Venice Artistic Director Alberto Barbera will be joined by Biennale President Roberto Cicutto to reveal this year’s titles.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Recently restored versions of William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist,” Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” feature in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice Film Festival. The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday. “The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.

wouldn’t they do that?”  As of press time on Thursday, the studios’ festival gameplan is still unclear. Sources indicate there are ongoing discussions about pulling films from fall festivals entirely and moving their release dates. Alternately, if festival premieres are maintained, they’ll likely happen without the support of their actors. For Venice — a festival recognized for its mega-watt star power and glitzy red carpets — this is going to hurt.  “The titles around Venice are star-driven,” said one senior PR source. “You need the actor shots for Venice because there are famous photos of them coming in on the boats, and it’s such an important platform for future awards titles. A lot of the competition titles are director-driven, so it wouldn’t necessarily affect the films’ awards future, but it would lose some of that glamor,” the PR added.   A U.S.-based industry veteran predicted optimistically that, unlike the WGA strike, the actors strike could be resolved in as early as a few weeks, but that “it’s still going to be a total shit show at Venice and Toronto.”    “I wouldn’t want to be Alberto Barbera trying to put together the lineup right now,” they noted.   For Venice, it’s shaping up to be a wait-and-see situation. “We hope that, in the interests of the entire audio-visual industry, the parties will reach an agreement quickly,” the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, said in a statement. But the prospects that the SAG-AFTRA strike will subside before the Lido launches are grim.