Somewhat clueless, you sat in the last days of the festival together with colleagues and wondered which movie would probably have the best chances to win the Golden Lion. Opinions differed, but there was one thing in common: the "Joker", Todd Phillips' gritty, outstanding comic adaptation, it would hardly be: The big Hollywood production had by participating in the festival and the consistently cheering premieres Critiques enough Oscar buzz built, she would win his prizes in the coming months even without Venice's award. A superhero movie as festival winner? That seemed very unlikely.
There was also agreement on Roman Polanski: Although his film "J'accuse" was one of the best in this Venice competition, like "Joker", the director, who was prosecuted for abusing and raping a minor, would not care for this controversy on the Lido Especially since jury president Lucrecia Martel had expressed her displeasure over Polanski's invitation at the start of the festival. The 86-year-old came neither to the premiere, nor to the award ceremony on Saturday night to Venice, he would have expected to be extradited to the US.
In the end, "Joker," the first comic blockbuster ever to compete in an A festival, won the Golden Lion and Polanski's "J'accuse" the second most important award, the Jury Grand Prix. The festival was so, after a mixed second week, but still good for a bang.
The Oscar ramp is intact
No other A festival has such a run as a launch pad for the Oscars like Venice. This is partly because of the placement of the festival in late summer, just before the US studios present their price contenders at the festival in Toronto. On the other hand, the clever negotiating policy of Festival director Alberto Barbera, who has been able to present at Lido in recent years, almost all future Oscar-Abräumer, from "Birdman" and "Gravity" on "La La Land" and "The Shape Of Water "to" Roma "last year.
Even this season, Venice managed to produce Oscar Buzz, even though the program sparked less in advance than in the years before: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson thrilled in Noah Baumbach's divorce drama "Marriage Story", Brad Pitt in "Ad Astra "- and festival winner" Joker "including leading actor Phoenix is also already traded as an Oscar candidate. Also, the opening film "La vérité", the first foreign language film by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, received friendly reviews and will find its way through the arthouse circle. And the confrontation with Roman Polanski's "J'accuse", which also negotiates an important topic with the content of European anti-Semitism, will probably only start properly.
Incidentally, the festival's second controversial film, Nate Parker's police violence drama "American Skin," won the main prize in the festival's sub-section Sconfini. It's a mini comeback for the African-American director who was once charged with rape. The debate over whether films by directors like Parker or Polanski may be shown and appreciated at festivals has just begun. Is it possible to separate works and artists, especially if the films are aesthetically and thematically convincing and relevant?
The surprisingly courageous decision of Martel's competition jury sets a strong signal here.
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76th Venice Film Festival: The winners at a glanceThe women question remains unanswered
Venice has the worst record among the A festivals, which include Cannes and the Berlinale, when it comes to gender justice in the festival program. Although festival chief Barbera - reluctantly - signed the petition "50/50 in 2020" last year, this year he once again repeated his controversial position that it would take much longer than next year, as many as male and female Filmmakers present in the competition and he prefers to quality eighth rather than quota.
In addition, he does not see the festivals as the responsibility, but the film industry, whose unjust conditions would have to change. A hen-and-egg argument that can be argued about. Around 23 percent of the submissions for this year were films by women, viewed throughout the festival, the proportion of female directing work was 25 percent, said Barbera last week at a specially designed seminar, the two-hour with different panels let the women question be discussed.
In the competition, the imbalance is still blatant: Although Barbera this time not, as 2018, only a film by a director, but two competition contributions by women: the German-Saudi production "The Perfect Candidate" by Haifaa al-Mansour and the Australian teenager -Drama "Babyteeth" by Shannon Murphy. However, Cannes and Berlin are far ahead, with up to five contributions from women each.
Especially since this season also quite more, theoretically available films by established directors would have been, including Marielle Heller, Kelly Reichardt and Marjane Satrapi. And also with "Pelikanblut" by Katrin Gebbe, the opening film of the side series Orrizonti, one wondered why the gripping mix of adoptive drama and horror film did not fit into the competition qualitatively. The coming year is Barberas for the time being last as program director of the festival. We can look forward to his farewell year - and to what comes afterwards.
Netflix and the darn second week
Venice embraced film productions of streaming services early on and integrated them into the competition - in part against the opposition of local cinema operators. Last year, "Roma", a film distributed exclusively by Netflix, even won the Golden Lion for the first time. Thanks to the Netflix films "Marriage Story", David Michód's "The King" and Steven Soderbergh's Panamanian Paper Farce "The Laundromat", the festival has once again welcomed the stars that are so much in demand for glamor (including Meryl Streep, Robert Pattinson, Scarlett Johansson) to the Lido. From the good cooperation benefit, for the time being, both the US streamer, who can advertise here for his high-profile cast films, as well as the festival, especially since main competitor Cannes is permanently difficult to show Netflix or Amazon films.
But that does not solve the problem of an increasingly weakening second festival week. Due to the beginning of the festivals in Telluride and Toronto, Venice has to reveal almost all of its program treasures in the first few days, because above all the Oscar-relevant US productions, including those of Netflix, can not otherwise be shown as a world premiere at the Lido. The second week of the festival thus automatically lacks highlights and highlights.
Rarely has this been clearer and more frustrating than this year. Although there were interesting and award-winning films from European and Asian production in the competition to see, including the class warfare drama "Michael Eden", the patriarchal Requiem "A Herdade" and the dazzling animated film "No. 7 Cherry Lane" by Yonfan. Nevertheless, one could not resist again the impression that Venice is seconded by its dependence on the cycles of the US season more and more in Oscar and Resterampe.
For the time being, there is no solution in sight for this dilemma either. But all these breaks, which in fact run through the entire cinema landscape, also make Venice perhaps the most interesting of the major festivals.