It is hard to think of the Venice film festival without recalling glamorous images of couture-clad stars walking down the red carpet or kicking back in the sun.
From Jean Cocteau enjoying an aperitif on an idyllic waterfront palazzo, to Paul Newman catching a water taxi and Elizabeth Taylor going barefoot on the beach, the world’s oldest film festival has long been associated with celebrity and decadence.
So when the Sag-Aftra strikes hit, Venice was one of the biggest casualties.
Now the A-listers are finally back, and they are clearly hungry for la dolce vita. Big Hollywood names including George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are all expected to descend on the Lido next week.
“I think this year we’ll have the longest list of talents to walk the red carpet ever,” the festival director, Alberto Barbera, said. “We’ve recovered from last year’s strikes. All the casts of every movie will attend the festival and walk the red carpet.
“Everybody was very eager not to miss it. I heard that even some actors who weren’t invited by the production companies decided to come by themselves – they bought a ticket and they rented a room so they can promote the films. It’s incredible.”
Such celebrity presence at Venice is embedded into the festival’s foundation, according to Fiona Handyside, an associate professor of film studies at the University of Exeter.
Handyside said when it was founded in 1932, Venice “was presented as an international and glamorous event attended by an elite audience of film professionals and the beau monde”. Its formula of films, celebrities and beach inspired later festivals such as Cannes and helped establish many of the norms of celebrity culture that still resonate today.
“The idea that audiences could see celebrities both on the red carpet and off duty was at the heart of film festival’s unique offer,” she said. “Brigitte Bardot frolicking in the waves is as significant to the history of film festivals as the French New Wave.”
Ben Dalton, a senior reporter at the film trade publication Screen International, said household names were “essential to a festival the size of Venice”, and recalled just how strange the place felt last year.
“The absence of Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and many more, plus the withdrawal of the original opening film, Challengers, starring Zendaya, meant both individual films and the festival itself didn’t get the usual boost with the public.”
This, he added, sat in stark contrast to 2022, when the presence of Timothée Chalamet and Harry Styles drove fans in Venice, as well as online, wild.
In fact, Styles and his colleagues’ press conference for Don’t Worry Darling will long live in Dalton’s memory. “Already the most talked-about title of the festival, director Olivia Wilde’s response to my question about the absence of her lead actress Florence Pugh triggered headlines around the world,” he said. “These were amplified by a social media storm known as ‘spitgate’ at that evening’s premiere.”
The challenge is to keep the focus on the films while attracting greater income to help run a massive event. But Barbera said everybody, including studios, audiences and the festival could “profit from the presence of the talent”.
Another festival director, Allison Gardner from Glasgow film festival, explained the difference a star presence could make to an event like hers.
“The crucial element is the film they are supporting and the value they are adding to the audience’s experience,” she said.
“This year we had Viggo Mortensen attend and the audiences loved his passion and commitment to the film he directed and starred in. His presence, as well as Alan Rickman, Richard Gere and Lynne Ramsay to name a few at previous editions, shines a light on the programme as a whole and helps raise the profile of the festival.”
Venice opens on Wednesday with the premiere of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci. The film is playing out of competition, alongside Jon Watts’ drama Wolfs, starring Pitt and Clooney.
Films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion, the festival’s highest prize, include: Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Phoenix and Gaga; Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Craig along with Lesley Manville; Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Joe Alwyn; and Justin Kurzel’s The Order, with Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult.
Also in competition are Pablo Larraín’s Maria, starring Jolie; Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore; and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, starring Kidman and Antonio Banderas. Among the TV series premiering is Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, starring Blanchett.
According to Bafta member and marketing consultant Julian Henry, the strong lineup represents a “deeper push” from studios this year.
“With cinema attendances still down on pre-Covid levels, the film industry has to remind audiences of the glamour and spectacle of a trip to the movies, and Venice is the ideal location,” he said. “It offers European glamour for an American audience.”
Stars are contracted to undertake a set amount of PR for major movies, Henry added. “It’s often easier done in the comfort of a suite in one of the best hotels in Italy, knowing a few Hollywood chums are nearby for dinner later.”
But Dina Iordanova, a professor at the University of St Andrews and a specialist in world cinema, said the presence of celebrities was becoming less important.
“In general, even the big festivals are not as widely covered in the media as they used to be,” she said. “Hollywood A-listers? Who cares [about] them these days?
“I am sure there are people who would like things to stay unchanged, but the reality is that Hollywood does not have much clout any more. It is a shadow of its former self, despite attempts to aggrandise the mediocre films it churns out.”