Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera. (AP photo)
The Cannes Film Festival flap with Netflix was a boon for Venice, which will show a record six Netflix offerings this year, including Orson Welles’ much-anticipated The Other Side of the Wind and the companion documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
But not everyone in Italy is happy.
Two Italian cinema trade groups fired off a strongly-worded joint statement Monday criticizing Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera and the practice of screening movies online day-and-date with their theatrical release or soon after.
The National Association of Cinema Exhibitors and the National Association of Multiplexed Exhibitors took exception with “what has been communicated by the director of the Venice Film Festival and the initiatives that allow the simultaneous release of some films in cinemas and on other media.”
The Italian trade groups condemned day-and-date streaming which they said only helps the “short-term interests of one party, to the detriment of others.”
The statement follow remarks last week by Barbera, who said, “I see no reason to exclude from the competition of the festival a film by Cuaron or the Coens only because it was produced by Netflix. In France, the law is different as regards to the windows, but fortunately here we do not have these problems.”
Venice officials have not responded to the recent criticism as they likely hope to avoid a debate about theatrical runs and on-demand streaming before the start of the 75th annual festival.
In addition to the two Welles titles, Venice will be screening Netflix’s Roma, 22 July, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and On My Skin.
The Italian film festival runs August 29 through September 8.
Premiere dates for the Welles films have not yet been announced.
__________
Post your comments on the Wellesnet Message Board.