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Speaker 1: In Frankenstein, Jacob Bellardi's movie, Guilli Armodel Toro's movie. I

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Speaker 1: cannot wait to see that. It's always good to see

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Speaker 1: Jacob Bellardy in everything.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 2: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, July twenty second,

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am

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Speaker 2: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 2: in La He's in New York, and Ridy has reporters

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Speaker 2: around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 2: we'll talk to our correspondent Nick Viverrelli and Rome and

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Speaker 2: International editor Elsa Caslasi in Paris about the Venice Film

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Speaker 2: Festival lineup, which was unveiled hours ago. We talk about

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Speaker 2: the boldface names that are coming to the Lido, and

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Speaker 2: Nick and Elsa dive right into all the politics swirling

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Speaker 2: around the festivals. We also talk about the increasing competition

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Speaker 2: between Venice and the can Film Festival for hot titles

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Speaker 2: and award season positioning. Before we get to that, here

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Speaker 2: are a few headlines just in this morning that you

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Speaker 2: need to know. John Stewart Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver,

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Speaker 2: David Letterman and Moore have rallied around Stephen Colbert amid

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Speaker 2: the shocking news that CBS will end the Late Show

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Speaker 2: next year. Most of what they said can't be repeated

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Speaker 2: here because we're trying to keep it clean, but the

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Speaker 2: anger is real. J. P. Richards and Carrie Moore are

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Speaker 2: out as Lionsgates heads of Marketing. Studio chief Adam Fogelson

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Speaker 2: plans to take a more active role in tub thumping

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Speaker 2: the studio's releases. Rip Malcolm Jamal Warner. If you were

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Speaker 2: a teenager in the eighties, you knew THEO, and THEO

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Speaker 2: was always cool. Now we turn to conversations with variety

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Speaker 2: journalists about news and trends in show business. Next up,

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Speaker 2: International editor Elsa Caslassi and correspondent Nick Viverrelli have a

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Speaker 2: discussion about the Venice Film Festival lineup that was released

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Speaker 2: earlier today. We also talk about the impact festival chief

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Speaker 2: Alberto Barbera has had during his time at the Helm.

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Speaker 2: Nick Vivarelli coming to us from Rome, Elsa Caslasi from Paris,

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Speaker 2: thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Cynthia, thank you Cinthia.

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Speaker 2: Well. The Venice Film Festival lineup was announced this morning

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Speaker 2: and certainly did not disappoint for folks in Hollywood. There

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Speaker 2: are a lot of boldface names that are going to

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Speaker 2: be coming to the Lido. Catherine Bigelo, Giermo del Toro,

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Speaker 2: Noah Bambach, Mona Festival, Luca Guadaino, Yorgos Lantimos, Beni Softi.

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Speaker 2: The list goes on and on, Nick, what stands out

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Speaker 2: to you as interesting or different about this year's lineup?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that along with the cornucopia, the cinematic

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Speaker 3: cornucopia that the lineup represents in terms of the buzzy

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Speaker 3: titles with the big stars, there's also another side of

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Speaker 3: the lineup which sees regions like Asia and in particular

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Speaker 3: China represented, and also Latin America, also the Arab world.

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Speaker 3: So I think that what Alberto has managed to do

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Speaker 3: is to couple high profile titles, buzzy titles, many of

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Speaker 3: which from the Anglo Saxon world, with works from lesser

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Speaker 3: represented parts of the world. And one of the titles

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Speaker 3: that Alberto pointed out during his presentation in the lineup

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Speaker 3: is Tunisian director Catherine ben Haanyez The Voice of rind Hajab,

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Speaker 3: which is a hot button political drama about the killing

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Speaker 3: of a five year old Palestinian girl who was left

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Speaker 3: stranded in a car that had been attacked by Israeli

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Speaker 3: forces in Gaza and was later found dead. And he

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Speaker 3: really made a point of underlining this title as something

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Speaker 3: that he felt very strongly about. In fact, he kind

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Speaker 3: of got choked up when he was talking about it.

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Speaker 2: That's very interesting because, as we know, for the last

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Speaker 2: couple of years, the politics have definitely played out at

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Speaker 2: film festivals. There's been debate, there's been angered, there's been

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Speaker 2: all kinds of drama about how film festivals treat films

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Speaker 2: and documentaries that deal with these politically touchy subjects. From

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Speaker 2: what you're saying, it sounds like Alberto wanted to get

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Speaker 2: to that head on.

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Speaker 3: Alberta has never shied away from politics, and I think

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Speaker 3: in this case he's not quoting controversy, I think, and

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Speaker 3: he said that, but he just, you know, he pointed

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Speaker 3: it out as a film that he thought is important,

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Speaker 3: and it's probably going to be a film that's going

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Speaker 3: to get talked about beyond films with George Clooney or

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Speaker 3: Juliet Roberts.

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Speaker 1: Also what stands out to you, It seems like going

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Speaker 1: to be a really really strong hear for Venice. They're

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Speaker 1: back and forth.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: I think that in the last couple of years people

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Speaker 1: were thinking that maybe the power dynamic has shifted in

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Speaker 1: favor of ten because they had such big success with

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Speaker 1: Anora and a bunch of movies turning up in the

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Speaker 1: Best Picture race. But I think the here with this lineup,

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Speaker 1: Alberto Barbera has really shown that Venice is still a

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Speaker 1: hugely popular and attractive launch pad for award season. The lineup,

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Speaker 1: as I say, is extremely strong with a lot of

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Speaker 1: anticipated movies. We're wondering if they were going to premiere

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Speaker 1: in can and we were told, well, they're not ready.

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Speaker 1: Well they're gonna be premiering in Venice. So I think

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Speaker 1: that we can say that looking at Venice plus Can,

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Speaker 1: we see more and more Hollywood movies premiering there. And

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Speaker 1: the reason why is because AMPASS voters are increasingly outside

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Speaker 1: of the United States. So it really shows that Hollywood

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Speaker 1: studios know that in order to court voters outside of

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Speaker 1: the US, Venice and Can are the top two launch pads.

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Speaker 1: The other thing that I noticed that Netflix, you know,

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Speaker 1: was absent from Venice last year and this year they're

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Speaker 1: back in force again with three movies. As in Can

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Speaker 1: was trying to allure them back for many years and

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Speaker 1: they've missed out this year because there'll be in Venice

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Speaker 1: US three big movies. I would say one I think

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Speaker 1: that's very attractive in terms of the Venice Film Festival

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Speaker 1: over town, for instance, is that critics tend to be

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Speaker 1: way nicer in Venice than in cat and that's actually

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Speaker 1: a very good trigger for you know, for studios and

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Speaker 1: people premiering movies.

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Speaker 2: There's just so much competition to bring these movies, and

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Speaker 2: of course timing plays a role. Venice on the calendar

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Speaker 2: at the end of August is well situated for award

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Speaker 2: season because you're just starting the fall roll out of

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Speaker 2: prestige films. What's the competition that Alberto Barbera and Terry Fermo,

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Speaker 2: what's the courtship like when they go after these movies

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Speaker 2: with big studios.

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Speaker 1: What I know is that both Terry Fremo and Alberto

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Speaker 1: Barbera travel to Los Angeles to speak to studios and

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Speaker 1: filmmakers and producers track so there actually going on campaign.

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Speaker 1: It's like keating the campaign trail, and what I've heard

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Speaker 1: is that Alberto Barbera has been extremely extremely competitive and

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Speaker 1: going earlier and earlier. So actually before Cherry Fremo would

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Speaker 1: be like the only one going first because Kennis before Vennice.

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Speaker 1: So you know, logically Chierry Fremo was by himself in

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Speaker 1: La making meetings. But now Alberto Barbera is also going

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Speaker 1: in January. They crossed paths, I heard, you know, for

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Speaker 1: because they were both going after Martine Corcese's latest film

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Speaker 1: and they were both both like in La at the

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Speaker 1: same time.

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Speaker 3: One of the elements that was a real turnaround for

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Speaker 3: Alberto Barbera was in twenty thirteen was a Warner Brothers

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Speaker 3: film which is Gravity, and Gravity really really was a

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Speaker 3: game changer for Venice because I was Alfonso coron I remember, yeah, Qaran.

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Speaker 2: That had a good ward season run that year.

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Speaker 3: It's a film that in hindsight know that Warner Brothers

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Speaker 3: didn't really believe in, and Alberto convinced them to launch

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Speaker 3: it in Venice and it did really, really well and

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Speaker 3: since then it kind of elevated Venice to a greater status.

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Speaker 2: Let me close out, Nick by asking you a little

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Speaker 2: bit more about Alberto Barbera. It sure seems like he

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Speaker 2: has raised the tempo and the just the overall profile

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Speaker 2: of the Venice Film Festival.

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Speaker 3: What Alberto has is he's a very calm person. He's

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Speaker 3: a very sort of he's not particularly flamboyant. He does

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Speaker 3: not fit the Italian sort of stereotype. He's a very

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Speaker 3: hard worker and he's very reliable. Another thing that he

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Speaker 3: did is he improved the infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: We have to say that Venice benefited in a huge

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Speaker 1: way from the clash between Can and Netflix because ever

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Speaker 1: since Ken decided that they could not welcome Netflix movies

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Speaker 1: in competition because of windowing rules, the Venice toku wait

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Speaker 1: hey Netflix, and that's been a huge draw for them

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Speaker 1: because all of a sudden they got all the Netflix

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Speaker 1: movies premiering there. Storied with Roma, and Roma was the

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Speaker 1: first big Netflix movie that made a big splash at Venice,

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Speaker 1: and all the other ones followed. So I think that

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Speaker 1: was a big turning point. So they can Venice can

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Speaker 1: thank Can for letting them have all the Netflix movies.

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Speaker 1: And then I just want also to highlight the fact

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Speaker 1: that Can is still the biggest showcase of international movies worldwide.

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Speaker 1: In the festival world.

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Speaker 2: Elsa's French pride is showing here. That's fantastic. Let me

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Speaker 2: close by asking you both, what are you most excited

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Speaker 2: to cover when you get to Venice in about five weeks.

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Speaker 1: Well, I can say I'm super super excited to see

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Speaker 1: Olivia A. Sayaz's movie The Wizard of the Kremlin, which

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Speaker 1: is a movie that it was developing for so long,

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Speaker 1: and it's impressive for a French showmaker to have gathered

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Speaker 1: such an you know, exclusive cast, Jude Law, Alisa vi Kender,

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Speaker 1: Paul Dano, so you know, all those big stars in

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Speaker 1: a French movie from Gomon. I think that's a big

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Speaker 1: source of pride.

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Speaker 3: Awesome Nick, just because as a point of Italian pride,

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Speaker 3: I'm very very happy that we have an Italian director

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Speaker 3: that has made a movie with Julia Roberts and it's

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Speaker 3: really a sort of testament to the fact that you

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Speaker 3: can make it in Hollywood from Europe.

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Speaker 1: And Frankenstein, Jacob Belardi's movie, guilli Ar Moodel Toro's movie,

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Speaker 1: I cannot wait to see that. It's always nice to

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Speaker 1: see Jacob Bellardi and everything.

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Speaker 2: Thank you both, really appreciate it, and rest up because

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Speaker 2: I know covering these festivals takes a lot out of you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you both, Thank you, thank you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Chiao ciao.

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Speaker 2: As we close out today's episode, here's a few things

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Speaker 2: we're watching for San Diego Comic Con starts on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: We'll hear from Adam Bivari and tomorrow's episode on what

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Speaker 2: to expect from the big show. The Fantastic Four First

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Speaker 2: Steps arrives in theaters on Friday. It's a big movie

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Speaker 2: for Marvel. The first reactions are in and the positive

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Speaker 2: superlatives are flying. Another fan event that is on our

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Speaker 2: radar is kkon the Korean Culture celebration that is coming

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Speaker 2: back to downtown LA on August First. More to come

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Speaker 2: on that before we go. Congratulations to Peter Liguri. He's

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Speaker 2: been up to CEO of audience measurement firm video AMP.

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Speaker 2: Ligori is an alum of FX Fox and Discovery. He'd

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Speaker 2: been chairman of video Amp since twenty twenty three, but

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Speaker 2: now he's taking the operational reins. Thanks for listening. This

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Speaker 2: episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with

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Speaker 2: contributions from Nick Viverrelli and Elsa Caslasi. It was edited

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Speaker 2: by Aaron Greenwood Stick snick hick picks. Please leave us

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Speaker 2: a review at the podcast platform of your choice, and

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Speaker 2: please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.