July 22, 2025 • 12 mins
Nick Vivarelli, Variety's Rome-based correspondent, and international editor Elsa Keslassy break down the significance of the Venice Film Festival lineup highlighted by Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" and A24's "The Smashing Machine" starring Dwayne Johnson. The pair discuss the increased competition for Hollywood awards contenders between Venice and the Cannes Film Festival as distributors seek to reach international voters. And they reflect on Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera's work to raise the fest's profile as a key launch pad for films on the world stage.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Frankenstein, Jacob Bellardi's movie, Guilli Armodel Toro's movie. I
cannot wait to see that. It's always good to see
Jacob Bellardy in everything.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, July twenty second,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in La He's in New York, and Ridy has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:38):
we'll talk to our correspondent Nick Viverrelli and Rome and
International editor Elsa Caslasi in Paris about the Venice Film
Festival lineup, which was unveiled hours ago. We talk about
the boldface names that are coming to the Lido, and
Nick and Elsa dive right into all the politics swirling
around the festivals. We also talk about the increasing competition
(00:59):
between Venice and the can Film Festival for hot titles
and award season positioning. Before we get to that, here
are a few headlines just in this morning that you
need to know. John Stewart Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver,
David Letterman and Moore have rallied around Stephen Colbert amid
the shocking news that CBS will end the Late Show
(01:20):
next year. Most of what they said can't be repeated
here because we're trying to keep it clean, but the
anger is real. J. P. Richards and Carrie Moore are
out as Lionsgates heads of Marketing. Studio chief Adam Fogelson
plans to take a more active role in tub thumping
the studio's releases. Rip Malcolm Jamal Warner. If you were
(01:40):
a teenager in the eighties, you knew THEO, and THEO
was always cool. Now we turn to conversations with variety
journalists about news and trends in show business. Next up,
International editor Elsa Caslassi and correspondent Nick Viverrelli have a
discussion about the Venice Film Festival lineup that was released
earlier today. We also talk about the impact festival chief
(02:03):
Alberto Barbera has had during his time at the Helm.
Nick Vivarelli coming to us from Rome, Elsa Caslasi from Paris,
thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Thank you, Cynthia, thank you Cinthia.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well. The Venice Film Festival lineup was announced this morning
and certainly did not disappoint for folks in Hollywood. There
are a lot of boldface names that are going to
be coming to the Lido. Catherine Bigelo, Giermo del Toro,
Noah Bambach, Mona Festival, Luca Guadaino, Yorgos Lantimos, Beni Softi.
(02:35):
The list goes on and on, Nick, what stands out
to you as interesting or different about this year's lineup?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, I think that along with the cornucopia, the cinematic
cornucopia that the lineup represents in terms of the buzzy
titles with the big stars, there's also another side of
the lineup which sees regions like Asia and in particular
China represented, and also Latin America, also the Arab world.
(03:07):
So I think that what Alberto has managed to do
is to couple high profile titles, buzzy titles, many of
which from the Anglo Saxon world, with works from lesser
represented parts of the world. And one of the titles
that Alberto pointed out during his presentation in the lineup
(03:29):
is Tunisian director Catherine ben Haanyez The Voice of rind Hajab,
which is a hot button political drama about the killing
of a five year old Palestinian girl who was left
stranded in a car that had been attacked by Israeli
forces in Gaza and was later found dead. And he
really made a point of underlining this title as something
(03:50):
that he felt very strongly about. In fact, he kind
of got choked up when he was talking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's very interesting because, as we know, for the last
couple of years, the politics have definitely played out at
film festivals. There's been debate, there's been angered, there's been
all kinds of drama about how film festivals treat films
and documentaries that deal with these politically touchy subjects. From
what you're saying, it sounds like Alberto wanted to get
(04:17):
to that head on.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Alberta has never shied away from politics, and I think
in this case he's not quoting controversy, I think, and
he said that, but he just, you know, he pointed
it out as a film that he thought is important,
and it's probably going to be a film that's going
to get talked about beyond films with George Clooney or
Juliet Roberts.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Also what stands out to you, It seems like going
to be a really really strong hear for Venice. They're
back and forth.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I think that in the last couple of years people
were thinking that maybe the power dynamic has shifted in
favor of ten because they had such big success with
Anora and a bunch of movies turning up in the
Best Picture race. But I think the here with this lineup,
Alberto Barbera has really shown that Venice is still a
hugely popular and attractive launch pad for award season. The lineup,
(05:11):
as I say, is extremely strong with a lot of
anticipated movies. We're wondering if they were going to premiere
in can and we were told, well, they're not ready.
Well they're gonna be premiering in Venice. So I think
that we can say that looking at Venice plus Can,
we see more and more Hollywood movies premiering there. And
(05:31):
the reason why is because AMPASS voters are increasingly outside
of the United States. So it really shows that Hollywood
studios know that in order to court voters outside of
the US, Venice and Can are the top two launch pads.
The other thing that I noticed that Netflix, you know,
was absent from Venice last year and this year they're
(05:53):
back in force again with three movies. As in Can
was trying to allure them back for many years and
they've missed out this year because there'll be in Venice
US three big movies. I would say one I think
that's very attractive in terms of the Venice Film Festival
over town, for instance, is that critics tend to be
(06:15):
way nicer in Venice than in cat and that's actually
a very good trigger for you know, for studios and
people premiering movies.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
There's just so much competition to bring these movies, and
of course timing plays a role. Venice on the calendar
at the end of August is well situated for award
season because you're just starting the fall roll out of
prestige films. What's the competition that Alberto Barbera and Terry Fermo,
what's the courtship like when they go after these movies
(06:47):
with big studios.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
What I know is that both Terry Fremo and Alberto
Barbera travel to Los Angeles to speak to studios and
filmmakers and producers track so there actually going on campaign.
It's like keating the campaign trail, and what I've heard
is that Alberto Barbera has been extremely extremely competitive and
(07:09):
going earlier and earlier. So actually before Cherry Fremo would
be like the only one going first because Kennis before Vennice.
So you know, logically Chierry Fremo was by himself in
La making meetings. But now Alberto Barbera is also going
in January. They crossed paths, I heard, you know, for
(07:31):
because they were both going after Martine Corcese's latest film
and they were both both like in La at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
One of the elements that was a real turnaround for
Alberto Barbera was in twenty thirteen was a Warner Brothers
film which is Gravity, and Gravity really really was a
game changer for Venice because I was Alfonso coron I remember, yeah, Qaran.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That had a good ward season run that year.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It's a film that in hindsight know that Warner Brothers
didn't really believe in, and Alberto convinced them to launch
it in Venice and it did really, really well and
since then it kind of elevated Venice to a greater status.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Let me close out, Nick by asking you a little
bit more about Alberto Barbera. It sure seems like he
has raised the tempo and the just the overall profile
of the Venice Film Festival.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
What Alberto has is he's a very calm person. He's
a very sort of he's not particularly flamboyant. He does
not fit the Italian sort of stereotype. He's a very
hard worker and he's very reliable. Another thing that he
did is he improved the infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We have to say that Venice benefited in a huge
way from the clash between Can and Netflix because ever
since Ken decided that they could not welcome Netflix movies
in competition because of windowing rules, the Venice toku wait
hey Netflix, and that's been a huge draw for them
(09:03):
because all of a sudden they got all the Netflix
movies premiering there. Storied with Roma, and Roma was the
first big Netflix movie that made a big splash at Venice,
and all the other ones followed. So I think that
was a big turning point. So they can Venice can
thank Can for letting them have all the Netflix movies.
And then I just want also to highlight the fact
(09:26):
that Can is still the biggest showcase of international movies worldwide.
In the festival world.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Elsa's French pride is showing here. That's fantastic. Let me
close by asking you both, what are you most excited
to cover when you get to Venice in about five weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, I can say I'm super super excited to see
Olivia A. Sayaz's movie The Wizard of the Kremlin, which
is a movie that it was developing for so long,
and it's impressive for a French showmaker to have gathered
such an you know, exclusive cast, Jude Law, Alisa vi Kender,
Paul Dano, so you know, all those big stars in
(10:04):
a French movie from Gomon. I think that's a big
source of pride.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Awesome Nick, just because as a point of Italian pride,
I'm very very happy that we have an Italian director
that has made a movie with Julia Roberts and it's
really a sort of testament to the fact that you
can make it in Hollywood from Europe.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And Frankenstein, Jacob Belardi's movie, guilli Ar Moodel Toro's movie,
I cannot wait to see that. It's always nice to
see Jacob Bellardi and everything.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Thank you both, really appreciate it, and rest up because
I know covering these festivals takes a lot out of you.
Thank you both, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah. Chiao ciao.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for San Diego Comic Con starts on Thursday.
We'll hear from Adam Bivari and tomorrow's episode on what
to expect from the big show. The Fantastic Four First
Steps arrives in theaters on Friday. It's a big movie
for Marvel. The first reactions are in and the positive
(11:09):
superlatives are flying. Another fan event that is on our
radar is kkon the Korean Culture celebration that is coming
back to downtown LA on August First. More to come
on that before we go. Congratulations to Peter Liguri. He's
been up to CEO of audience measurement firm video AMP.
Ligori is an alum of FX Fox and Discovery. He'd
(11:31):
been chairman of video Amp since twenty twenty three, but
now he's taking the operational reins. Thanks for listening. This
episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with
contributions from Nick Viverrelli and Elsa Caslasi. It was edited
by Aaron Greenwood Stick snick hick picks. Please leave us
a review at the podcast platform of your choice, and
(11:52):
please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.
In Frankenstein, Jacob Bellardi's movie, Guilli Armodel Toro's movie. I
cannot wait to see that. It's always good to see
Jacob Bellardy in everything.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, July twenty second,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in La He's in New York, and Ridy has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:38):
we'll talk to our correspondent Nick Viverrelli and Rome and
International editor Elsa Caslasi in Paris about the Venice Film
Festival lineup, which was unveiled hours ago. We talk about
the boldface names that are coming to the Lido, and
Nick and Elsa dive right into all the politics swirling
around the festivals. We also talk about the increasing competition
(00:59):
between Venice and the can Film Festival for hot titles
and award season positioning. Before we get to that, here
are a few headlines just in this morning that you
need to know. John Stewart Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver,
David Letterman and Moore have rallied around Stephen Colbert amid
the shocking news that CBS will end the Late Show
(01:20):
next year. Most of what they said can't be repeated
here because we're trying to keep it clean, but the
anger is real. J. P. Richards and Carrie Moore are
out as Lionsgates heads of Marketing. Studio chief Adam Fogelson
plans to take a more active role in tub thumping
the studio's releases. Rip Malcolm Jamal Warner. If you were
(01:40):
a teenager in the eighties, you knew THEO, and THEO
was always cool. Now we turn to conversations with variety
journalists about news and trends in show business. Next up,
International editor Elsa Caslassi and correspondent Nick Viverrelli have a
discussion about the Venice Film Festival lineup that was released
earlier today. We also talk about the impact festival chief
(02:03):
Alberto Barbera has had during his time at the Helm.
Nick Vivarelli coming to us from Rome, Elsa Caslasi from Paris,
thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Thank you, Cynthia, thank you Cinthia.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well. The Venice Film Festival lineup was announced this morning
and certainly did not disappoint for folks in Hollywood. There
are a lot of boldface names that are going to
be coming to the Lido. Catherine Bigelo, Giermo del Toro,
Noah Bambach, Mona Festival, Luca Guadaino, Yorgos Lantimos, Beni Softi.
(02:35):
The list goes on and on, Nick, what stands out
to you as interesting or different about this year's lineup?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, I think that along with the cornucopia, the cinematic
cornucopia that the lineup represents in terms of the buzzy
titles with the big stars, there's also another side of
the lineup which sees regions like Asia and in particular
China represented, and also Latin America, also the Arab world.
(03:07):
So I think that what Alberto has managed to do
is to couple high profile titles, buzzy titles, many of
which from the Anglo Saxon world, with works from lesser
represented parts of the world. And one of the titles
that Alberto pointed out during his presentation in the lineup
(03:29):
is Tunisian director Catherine ben Haanyez The Voice of rind Hajab,
which is a hot button political drama about the killing
of a five year old Palestinian girl who was left
stranded in a car that had been attacked by Israeli
forces in Gaza and was later found dead. And he
really made a point of underlining this title as something
(03:50):
that he felt very strongly about. In fact, he kind
of got choked up when he was talking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's very interesting because, as we know, for the last
couple of years, the politics have definitely played out at
film festivals. There's been debate, there's been angered, there's been
all kinds of drama about how film festivals treat films
and documentaries that deal with these politically touchy subjects. From
what you're saying, it sounds like Alberto wanted to get
(04:17):
to that head on.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Alberta has never shied away from politics, and I think
in this case he's not quoting controversy, I think, and
he said that, but he just, you know, he pointed
it out as a film that he thought is important,
and it's probably going to be a film that's going
to get talked about beyond films with George Clooney or
Juliet Roberts.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Also what stands out to you, It seems like going
to be a really really strong hear for Venice. They're
back and forth.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I think that in the last couple of years people
were thinking that maybe the power dynamic has shifted in
favor of ten because they had such big success with
Anora and a bunch of movies turning up in the
Best Picture race. But I think the here with this lineup,
Alberto Barbera has really shown that Venice is still a
hugely popular and attractive launch pad for award season. The lineup,
(05:11):
as I say, is extremely strong with a lot of
anticipated movies. We're wondering if they were going to premiere
in can and we were told, well, they're not ready.
Well they're gonna be premiering in Venice. So I think
that we can say that looking at Venice plus Can,
we see more and more Hollywood movies premiering there. And
(05:31):
the reason why is because AMPASS voters are increasingly outside
of the United States. So it really shows that Hollywood
studios know that in order to court voters outside of
the US, Venice and Can are the top two launch pads.
The other thing that I noticed that Netflix, you know,
was absent from Venice last year and this year they're
(05:53):
back in force again with three movies. As in Can
was trying to allure them back for many years and
they've missed out this year because there'll be in Venice
US three big movies. I would say one I think
that's very attractive in terms of the Venice Film Festival
over town, for instance, is that critics tend to be
(06:15):
way nicer in Venice than in cat and that's actually
a very good trigger for you know, for studios and
people premiering movies.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
There's just so much competition to bring these movies, and
of course timing plays a role. Venice on the calendar
at the end of August is well situated for award
season because you're just starting the fall roll out of
prestige films. What's the competition that Alberto Barbera and Terry Fermo,
what's the courtship like when they go after these movies
(06:47):
with big studios.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
What I know is that both Terry Fremo and Alberto
Barbera travel to Los Angeles to speak to studios and
filmmakers and producers track so there actually going on campaign.
It's like keating the campaign trail, and what I've heard
is that Alberto Barbera has been extremely extremely competitive and
(07:09):
going earlier and earlier. So actually before Cherry Fremo would
be like the only one going first because Kennis before Vennice.
So you know, logically Chierry Fremo was by himself in
La making meetings. But now Alberto Barbera is also going
in January. They crossed paths, I heard, you know, for
(07:31):
because they were both going after Martine Corcese's latest film
and they were both both like in La at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
One of the elements that was a real turnaround for
Alberto Barbera was in twenty thirteen was a Warner Brothers
film which is Gravity, and Gravity really really was a
game changer for Venice because I was Alfonso coron I remember, yeah, Qaran.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That had a good ward season run that year.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It's a film that in hindsight know that Warner Brothers
didn't really believe in, and Alberto convinced them to launch
it in Venice and it did really, really well and
since then it kind of elevated Venice to a greater status.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Let me close out, Nick by asking you a little
bit more about Alberto Barbera. It sure seems like he
has raised the tempo and the just the overall profile
of the Venice Film Festival.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
What Alberto has is he's a very calm person. He's
a very sort of he's not particularly flamboyant. He does
not fit the Italian sort of stereotype. He's a very
hard worker and he's very reliable. Another thing that he
did is he improved the infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We have to say that Venice benefited in a huge
way from the clash between Can and Netflix because ever
since Ken decided that they could not welcome Netflix movies
in competition because of windowing rules, the Venice toku wait
hey Netflix, and that's been a huge draw for them
(09:03):
because all of a sudden they got all the Netflix
movies premiering there. Storied with Roma, and Roma was the
first big Netflix movie that made a big splash at Venice,
and all the other ones followed. So I think that
was a big turning point. So they can Venice can
thank Can for letting them have all the Netflix movies.
And then I just want also to highlight the fact
(09:26):
that Can is still the biggest showcase of international movies worldwide.
In the festival world.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Elsa's French pride is showing here. That's fantastic. Let me
close by asking you both, what are you most excited
to cover when you get to Venice in about five weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, I can say I'm super super excited to see
Olivia A. Sayaz's movie The Wizard of the Kremlin, which
is a movie that it was developing for so long,
and it's impressive for a French showmaker to have gathered
such an you know, exclusive cast, Jude Law, Alisa vi Kender,
Paul Dano, so you know, all those big stars in
(10:04):
a French movie from Gomon. I think that's a big
source of pride.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Awesome Nick, just because as a point of Italian pride,
I'm very very happy that we have an Italian director
that has made a movie with Julia Roberts and it's
really a sort of testament to the fact that you
can make it in Hollywood from Europe.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And Frankenstein, Jacob Belardi's movie, guilli Ar Moodel Toro's movie,
I cannot wait to see that. It's always nice to
see Jacob Bellardi and everything.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Thank you both, really appreciate it, and rest up because
I know covering these festivals takes a lot out of you.
Thank you both, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah. Chiao ciao.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for San Diego Comic Con starts on Thursday.
We'll hear from Adam Bivari and tomorrow's episode on what
to expect from the big show. The Fantastic Four First
Steps arrives in theaters on Friday. It's a big movie
for Marvel. The first reactions are in and the positive
(11:09):
superlatives are flying. Another fan event that is on our
radar is kkon the Korean Culture celebration that is coming
back to downtown LA on August First. More to come
on that before we go. Congratulations to Peter Liguri. He's
been up to CEO of audience measurement firm video AMP.
Ligori is an alum of FX Fox and Discovery. He'd
(11:31):
been chairman of video Amp since twenty twenty three, but
now he's taking the operational reins. Thanks for listening. This
episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with
contributions from Nick Viverrelli and Elsa Caslasi. It was edited
by Aaron Greenwood Stick snick hick picks. Please leave us
a review at the podcast platform of your choice, and
(11:52):
please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.
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