Venice Film Festival | Line-up of films include ‘Ferrari,’ ‘The Killer’ and ‘Priscilla’
The Hindu
The festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera is putting a brave face on the expected disruption and has managed to attract one of the strongest line-ups in recent years, defying dire predictions of a mass no-show by big studio productions
The Venice film festival opens its doors on Wednesday to a stack of highly anticipated movies but less star power than usual, as a Hollywood actors' strike keeps many A-listers off the famed red carpet.
The festival's artistic director Alberto Barbera is putting a brave face on the expected disruption and has managed to attract one of the strongest line-ups in recent years, defying dire predictions of a mass no-show by big studio productions.
"We know that some talent will not be able to attend ... But some others will come because they are working in the independent films," Barbera said. "So everything is good. It looks very positive."
New films by directors including Bradley Cooper, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Fincher, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay and Ryusuke Hamaguchi will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion at the event, which runs until Sept. 9.
But away from Venice's picture-perfect canals, a sense of crisis pervades the movie-making business, with strikes by both the main U.S. actors and writers' unions bringing much of the entertainment industry to a standstill.
"If the strikes last longer, it will have a huge, negative impact on the next (release) season and the awards season as well," Barbera said.
Venice regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars, with eight of the past 11 best-director Oscars going to films that debuted at Venice, including "La La Land" in 2016, directed by this year's jury president, Damien Chazelle.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.
The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”