Hollywood strike takes shine off Venice Film Festival, shifting attention to directors and their stories

When a star arrives at the Venice International Film Festival, their presence brightens the entire day. In the morning, crowds gather early along the red carpet. At night, the clamor for autographs echoes throughout Lido Island in the Venetian lagoon. During press conferences, the actors often steal the focus, obliging moderators to redirect some attention towards directors and writers. Put simply, the actors tend to overshadow the filmmakers. It happens all the time at a film festival that has become like a second home for Hollywood’s biggest stars. Until now.

The ongoing strike by actors and screenwriters in the United States, demanding fair treatment and more revenue from big studios and streaming platforms, as well as industry regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), has shifted the focus of the 80th edition of the Venice festival that starts on August 30. Usually, at this time, fans would be picturing Michael Fassbender’s elegant tuxedo or looking forward to hearing what Emma Stone has to say about her character’s exciting journey. Since the work stoppage prohibits any promotional activity by the striking actors and screenwriters, the focus in Venice is now on directors and their stories. How will the absence of its most popular faces impact the world’s oldest film competition? Why does the film industry place more emphasis on actors rather than creators? Could this be an opportunity to give filmmakers a greater voice?

This year, directors like Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Michael Mann, Pablo Larraín, Yorgos Lanthimos, Matteo Garrone and Ava DuVernay will screen their films in Venice, marking the start of the awards season and the path to the Oscars. Moreover, each one has a subject that is highly deserving of attention. Coppola’s movie is about the life of Priscilla Beaulieu, Elvis Presley’s wife, and Fincher’s is about a cold-blooded murderer who’s having a crisis of conscience. Mann’s film is about Enzo Ferrari’s most turbulent year, and Larraín’s portrays former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet coming back from the dead as a vampire. The movie directed by Lanthimos depicts a creature as thirsty for pleasure as it is for power. Finally, Garrone’s movie is about the odyssey of two migrants and DuVernay tells the story of the origins of inequality in the U.S. Other renowned directors in attendance include Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, Céline Sciamma and J. A. Bayona, who will close the festival with a screening of Society of the Snow.

Bradley Cooper directed and starred in Maestro, a film about the love between composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. As one of the 160,000 actors participating in the strike, Cooper will not attend the festival. His film was produced by Netflix, a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is one of the main sources of the actors union’s grievances. Over 350 production companies are members of the AMPTP, including behemoths like Sony, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Universal, HBO and other streaming platforms. This is why the Italian festival’s 80th edition will spotlight the directors. However, the gray, rainy skies looming over Venice are sure to bring more uncertainty.

“Nowadays, renowned filmmakers are also celebrities. The red carpet this year may not be as glamorous, but nothing has changed from an organizational perspective. Since the big studios and streamers with all their stars will be absent, we expect independent films to take the spotlight,” said Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the film festival. This means Adam Driver (in Michael Mann’s Ferrari), Jessica Chastain (in Michel Franco’s Memory), and Caleb Landry Jones (in Luc Besson’s Dogman) have confirmed their attendance.

In late July, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) established a temporary agreement allowing its members to act in and promote movies not made by AMPTP member studios. Despite having a $90 million budget, Ferrari was made by an independent production company. Independent films can be produced and promoted, and the SAG strongly supports this. First, it helps actors earn a living, which is crucial after nearly 50 days of strike with no end in sight. Second, by participating in these projects, actors demonstrate that there are companies willing and capable of making films under the conditions that the major studios reject.

In the past, Alberto Barbera would spend a lot of time responding to inquiries on social media about the celebrities attending the festival. However, this year he has been less active because he is still unsure about many details. Nonetheless, he stressed that there has been no decline in ticket purchases and media accreditations. “No film has given up on coming, except Challengers, by Luca Guadagnino.” That was the movie that was slated to open the festival.

After the cancellation by Challengers (its release was postponed to April 2024), Comandante by Edoardo de Angelis was tapped as the festival opener. The substitution encapsulates, to some extent, the challenges faced by the entire festival: a potential Oscar contender featuring Zendaya replaced by an Italian film about the heroic commanding officer of a submarine in World War II. While the latter may have many merits, there is definitely a noticeable difference in their potential for grabbing the attention of viewers worldwide.

“For the past 25 years, the red carpet has played a significant role in promoting big events,” said Barbera. “It has become a ritual that captivates much of the audience, especially the younger ones. The screenings themselves will still be the highlight, but there are also other important activities like the big stars arriving on vaporettos [water taxis], the photocalls and the interviews. Studios prioritize bringing their celebrities here, despite the high cost. We thought that might not happen this year, but fortunately, that hasn’t been the case.” However, those who choose to attend this year will get to enjoy much more time in the limelight.

Renowned filmmakers have long basked in the spotlight, but this year they don’t have to share the stage quite as much. Among the esteemed yet less recognized directors at the festival are Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar for Drive My Car. Additionally, there are riveting narratives like the struggles of migrants caught between Belarus and Poland in Green Border by Agniezska Holland. Other stories shed light on lesser-known subjects like the discrimination faced by the Yenish people (an itinerant group in Western Europe), captured in Giorgio Diritti’s poignant film, Lubo.

This year’s festival offers opportunities to those who don’t often get a chance to speak. The agencies that inundate journalists with interview proposals these days have never provided such a wide range of producers, cinematographers and other technicians. The Venice International Film Festival will still serve up plenty of movie buzz this year, even in the absence of many performers who are busy engaging in a pivotal dialogue about the future of the entire industry.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition