The Venice Film Festival’s 2024 lineup is one of the most star-studded we’ve seen for a fall festival in quite some time. Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux), George Clooney and Brad Pitt (Wolfs), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Julianne Moore (The Room Next Door), and Cate Blanchett (Disclaimer) are all scheduled to walk the carpet on the Lido during the event, which runs August 28 to September 7.
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Artistic director Alberto Barbera is the man responsible for making the 2024 Venice Film Festival every studio’s most desired Oscar launching pad. When he took on the role in 2012 (he had previously held the same position from 1998 to 2001), Venice did not have the same level of prestige that it does today, as Barbera tells Vanity Fair. But in just a few short years, he’s helped build the fest into the glamorous getaway it’s become, where dozens of films have begun their journeys to the Oscars over the past few years.
Ahead of the festival kick-off this year, Barbera spoke with Vanity Fair about what it took to get Venice on track, the rivalry between festivals, and how they’ll deal with the Brangelina of it all at this year’s event.
Vanity Fair: There’s often rumblings about the competition between the fall festivals – Venice, Telluride, and Toronto – to secure the biggest world premieres. Do you think this issue is getting worse or better?
Alberto Barbera: It was worse years before. In 2012, most of the American films preferred to go to Toronto instead of coming to Venice, because Venice, of course, is more expensive. Toronto, it's a lot cheaper and easier for them. In most cases, that was the option for the big studios. So it was not easy to convince all of them to come back to Venice. There were no studios' films in Venice in 2012.
The following year, we opened the festival with Gravity. That won the Oscar, and that was the beginning of a change in the relationship with the studios. After that, every year we had one or more than one films that went to the Oscars, then won the Oscars—like Birdman, Spotlight, La La Land, Shape of Water, Joker. So of course now it's easy to get a film, because the studios and the Americans understood that they can use the platform of Venice to launch the film internationally, and to start a campaign for the Oscars, with all the press that we have in Venice. There is almost no press in Toronto, apart from the trades. We have something like 3,000 media representatives from all over the world, so they can really make a proper promotion with the film, the marketing of the film, starting from Venice.
How much are you considering the balance between commercial films and potential Oscar films in your lineup?
I don't like the idea to invite a commercial film if the film doesn't have, how can I say, a personal approach to the content. It has to be oriented with some specific interest from the point of view of the filmmaker, and production-wise. There are so many films that I prefer to give the chance to a more personal film to be selected, instead of just a commercial one.
Every year, there are headline-grabbing moments in Venice like Lady Gaga on a boat. Do you have a favorite moment like that from the last couple of years?
Well, you mentioned Lady Gaga. I think that is a perfect example of a very special moment. Do you remember the red carpet of A Star Is Born? It was magic, because she was on the red carpet with this beautiful white dress with feathers and so on, and then it started to rain, but she didn't want to leave the red carpet. She stayed on the red carpet taking photos, signing autographs and so on. And then she was completely wet. So she came to my office, trying to dry herself and gown. And Bradley Cooper was outside with me, discussing the film and the expectation around the film. And then she came out of the office, and she was trembling, and he said, "Oh, I don't understand why. You should be used to this, being in concerts with hundreds of thousands of people waiting for you."
She told me, "Yeah, of course, but this is my first time in a film." So she was shaking, but then of course the response of the critics and the audience to the film was so fantastic. It was a beautiful evening for everybody.
