Given the current pandemic situation, big film gatherings and events have been cancelled or postponed all over the world. But now, according to the governor of Italy’s Veneto region, Luca Zaia, the 2020 incarnation of the Venice International Film Festival is still scheduled to go ahead in September.
What will – assuming the Coronavirus doesn't rear its ugly head again before that, and people are actually willing to travel to Italy – mark as the 77th festival is currently planned to run between 2-12 September this year. Deadline cautions that there has been no official word from the festival itself on the matter, but Zaia is on the board of directors of festival organiser the Biennale di Venezia, which means he's in more of a position to know than some.
However it happens, the festival (which has Cate Blanchett still on to be president of the main competition jury this year) will look quite different, with fewer films showing and safety/sanitation procedures in place. Like some other countries, Italy has begun opening back up after Corona-lockdown, with visitors from the European Union able to travel there in early June and cinemas scheduled to re-open (with social distancing measures in place) in the middle of the month. Now we wait to see more official announcements and to find out if it truly happens...