Venice Film Festival Chief on ‘Challengers’ Dropping Out Against Luca Guadagnino’s Wishes and Premiering Polanski and Allen Films: ‘I Don’t See Where the Issue Is’
25.07.2023 - 17:31
/ variety.com
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.
And though it remains to be seen how many U.S. stars will make the trek, Barbera, in a conversation with Variety, vows that the Venice red carpet won’t be bare. Below, he also addresses showing films by controversial directors Roman Polanski and Woody Allen at this year’s edition of the festival.
Did you see the possible impact of the actors’ strike coming? Not before it was officially called. The day after it was called, conversations started about the negative repercussions it could have on festivals. At first, it seemed it was going to be devastating.
Everybody was panicking. Even more than us, it was all the producers, the studios, the streamers. For the first few days there was total silence, we were unable to speak to anyone.
We understood that the situation was very complex and threatening. There was a real risk that all the American movies could be pulled. I had closed the lineup, so you can imagine with what spirit I faced the following week.
I was ready to throw everything up in the air and rethink everything. Then, luckily, I started getting positive signals. First from Searchlight [which is behind Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”], who said: “We want to support the festival and release the film.