Once upon a time, neither event would touch a Hollywood blockbuster with a bargepole – now Oscar hopefuls are eagerly sought for a touch of glamour
For most of the Venice film festival’s 75 years, its interests have intersected only occasionally with those of the Academy Awards. Even when they have, no one’s made much of a circus about it: in 2008, future best picture winner The Hurt Locker premiered on the Lido to strong reviews, but so muted was the industry reception that its release was deferred until the next year. The next year, I attended my first Venice as a critic: awards prognosticators had only Tom Ford’s A Single Man to nibble at, while the rest of us feasted on new works by Claire Denis, Jessica Hausner and Jaco Van Dormael. The Venice film festival is part of the Biennale, after all: art is the operative word.
Fast-forward to 2018 and the picture is slightly different. Under the new stewardship of director Alberto Barbera, Venice has been branded an Oscar kingmaker: it’s the festival where such films as Gravity, Black Swan, Birdman, Spotlight and La La Land all kicked off their golden awards-season trajectories, rather than handing “we saw it first” bragging rights to Telluride or Toronto. Last year, Guillermo del Toro’s lavish fantasy The Shape of Water became the first winner of the Venice Golden Lion to scoop the best picture Oscar; this year’s wildly popular Golden Lion champ, Alfonso Cuarón’s exquisite memory piece Roma, has designs on becoming the second.
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