The Golden Lion Award — TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images(ITALY) — As many parts of the world recover from the COVID-19 crisis, the mayor of hard-hit Venice, Italy insists the city’s famed film festival is still happening this September.
Variety reports Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto, has given the green light to the annual event, which is scheduled to start September 2 and run through September 12.
The festival, which showcases offerings from Hollywood and around the world, usually dovetails with the international exhibition Biennale of Architecture, but this year, the latter event was postponed until 2021 for logistical reasons.
While the Venice Film Festival is still on the schedule, its organizers will likely see a problem shared by awards shows on this side of the world: fewer films in the running, thanks to shooting delays caused by the pandemic.
Incidentally, Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and crew of the next Mission: Impossible film left Venice for Rome a few months ago as the virus began spreading. Ultimately, they left Rome as well, and shooting on the film was suspended.
Italy, which once claimed more reported COVID-19 infections than nearly any other nation, has recently seen is infections decline. It now has a reported 230,158 infections, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University — the sixth-highest reported per-nation infection total.
By Stephen Iervolino
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