euro|topics - Venice and Rome as film festival rivals

Main focus of Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Venice and Rome as film festival rivals

The 63rd Venice Film Festival begins today. However, this year the festival is facing a home-grown rival: the new festival Feste del Cinema takes place for the first time this October in Rome. The European press has already declared Venice the cinematic winner, but nonetheless sees great potential in its rival in Rome.

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"No matter who ends up winning this film festival feud – and at the moment things are looking good for Venice – the clash with Rome is still bad news," writes Susan Vahabzadeh. "For sure, competition gives the business a boost, but even if Rome does end up giving Venice a higher profile and more cinematographic credit, money is in short supply in Venice. It needs a new festival palace, and now that there's another applicant for the little funding available, all hopes of a quick way out of its financial plight have evaporated. But for now the Venetians have declared a film war on their competitors. Rome won't be able to match the programme put together by Marco Müller, in his third year as director of the festival. Müller has concocted a potent mixture of exciting, big films and cinematographic rarities – and there's plenty of Hollywood glamour, too." (30/08/2006)

Corriere della Sera - Italy

In an interview conducted by Giussepina Manin, Davide Croff, president of the Venice Biennale, doesn't seem to fear competition from the Rome festival. "Our strength lies first of all in the absolute originality of the linguistic melting pot that the Mostra represents, a unique example with world-wide authority. Both intuitive idea of film as art and the idea of a review/show-case were born here in the 1930s. All the other festivals, Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, were modelled on us, the festival in Rome too. Its birth does not bother us. There is no conflict between us, only healthy emulation." (30/08/2006)

Der Standard - Austria

"Nowadays an extensive programme that includes a generous sprinkling of Hollywood premieres is part and parcel of an A-rated festival like Venice," Dominik Kamalzadeh writes. "Now that it's facing a well-endowed rival, the Venice festival is even more dependent on this strategy. A film festival will be held for the first time in Rome this October, and Nicole Kidman has already agreed to be there. For its part Venice has long been struggling with infrastructure problems. The cinemas are old and the festival palace was temporarily flooded after a storm last year. Rome, on the other hand, has a brand new auditorium designed by star architect Renzo Piano. Marco Müller, director of the Venice festival, is a skilled lobbyist and his only trump card now is the festival's illustrious reputation. But at least this year it looks like the Venice festival, with its high-carat programme, will win the battle." (30/08/2006)

Le Temps - Switzerland

"Italy itself has just slipped a mine beneath the fragile feet of the venerable Mostra. The latter was already having to battle against all sorts of competition. This time it finds itself facing an unexpected rival on its own turf," writes Thierry Jobin. "The Mostra has already had all the difficulty in the world maintaining, in a Berlusconian context, its 10 million euro budget of which a quarter is now derived from private sources. Rome, meanwhile, struts its stuff. Right from it's first year, the RomaCinemaFest has disposed of financing, essentially private, almost equivalent to that of Venice. Above all, it will circulate in a brand new auditorium built by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. In these conditions, the idea of this new festival, launched by the left-wing mayor Walter Veltroni to spruce up his capital, appears as a strike of genius. One which is mobilising all Italian cinema, while Mostra pales in comparison." (30/08/2006)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, August 30, 2006

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