How does it Feel to Attend the Venice Film Festival during a Global Pandemic?

The Red Carpet behind the wall - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) How does it feel to attend the Venice Film Festival during a global pandemic? Mostly serene. Less frenetic. More European. There is a new system in place where every person with accreditation must make a reservation for every screening and every press conference, which is a good thing. In past years, it had become more like a competition to get in the door to the buzzy films, and attendees were sometimes forced to queue long in advance. Now we know we have a seat, just like regular members of the audience — it saves a lot of time. We can be found by matching our seat number to our accreditation badge in case of a coronavirus outbreak, and they can easily identify everyone who is seated in the same vicinity. 

Our temperature is taken when we enter the grounds of the film festival, and when we enter a screening. The police are being extremely vigilant about checking our tote bags. Every other seat in the theater is left empty, so the audience is cut in half. To work in the press room, our pass codes and time we enter is recorded by hand, and we are given a handwritten number so that we can be easily located. There are no computers to share, which is inconvenient but understandable; we must bring our own. When we leave the press room we turn in the number so the time we leave can be recorded, and the place where we sat is sanitized. Masks must be worn everywhere at all times, and it is strictly enforced.

New electric scooters on the Lido

To me, the Sala Grande —normally 1031 seats, now cut to 518 seats — and the Sala Darsena —normally 1401 seats, now cut to 699 seats — are two of the most pleasant cinemas in which to screen a film, though the much smaller audience feels a bit surreal. I miss the energy of all the journalists gossiping and reacting to what we see on screen. There were 12,000 accredited visitors last year. This year there are only 5,000. When it comes to the public, last year 80,000 tickets were sold versus 20,000 this year. But still, just being able to live through movies on a big screen with fellow human beings, with shared emotions, is a moving experience for which there is no substitute.

The frenzy of the arrival of the stars on the Red Carpet is almost non-existent. The barrier separating the people on the street from the Red Carpet has been heightened so you can’t see over it — it used to be that stars could just reach across the barrier and thrill their fans with a personal touch. Now in order to see anything you have to watch the video screen. Gone are all the autograph and selfie seekers that would camp out for hours in the hope of seeing their favorite stars. I miss all the glitz and glamour, and the crowds of onlookers. Last year I interviewed three girls who had been coming to the Red Carpet for years in a post called Waiting for the Stars.  They had first encountered each other outside the barrier to the Red Carpet, had bonded, and since then had held a yearly reunion, becoming Red Carpet pros with clever tricks and maneuvers. I wonder where they are this year...

Lexus all-electric car - Photo: Cat Bauer

Since I‘ve spent a good chunk of my life in Hollywood, most of all I miss the American movies. I am a diehard fan of Hollywood magic; I love the structure, and normally focus on seeing movies from the United States. But in the absence of American films, I have been able to see films from all over the world that I normally would not have the time to see, so I get to travel to faraway lands without leaving my seat. 

There are lots of positive new innovations on the Lido. The busses to take us to the festival are all electric and nearly silent, without that ancient fossil fuel energy belching out the rumble of dinosaurs. All the Lexus cars, an official sponsor of the Venice Film Festival, are fully electric. There are new orange bicycles for rent, as well as electric scooters. La Biennale di Venezia tote bags are khaki green, created by Tucano in Milan, and made entirely of recycled plastic bottles, which are transformed into thread. It feels just like cloth.

Winged Lion of Venice wood sculpture by Marco Martalar - Photo: Cat Bauer

There is a new guardian lion in the gardens of the film festival. The wooden Lion of San Marco sculpture, Il Leone Alato e gli Alberi d'Oro di Vaia, was created by Marco Martalar, and composed of more than 1500 pieces of branches and roots broken by the fury of the wind during an unprecedented storm in the Veneto on October 28, 2018 named "Vaia." The artist began the sculpture in October 2019, and finished it in March 2020, transforming the broken trees into a majestic lion, a symbol of strength and hope. It is the largest winged wooden lion in the world.

At the moment I write this, there has not been a single COVID-19 coronavirus case at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. I feel grateful and privileged to be able to attend it in this challenging year. That La Biennale di Venezia took the courageous step of safely restarting the World of Cinema during a global health crisis is something to applaud.

Ciao from the Venice Film Festival,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog