Venice Film Festival takes unprecedented step ahead of event

Ahead of film festivals, press conferences are an unusual sight for juries, but this time in Venice it appears that would not be the case.

The Venice Film Festival has yet to announce what reports say is an unusual decision.

According to Deadline, however, the publication pressed the festival for an answer.

After multiple questions, the Venice Film Festival confirmed that the jury press conference will not happen.

The outlet noted the decision is an outlier; film festival setups typically include a media schedule.

However, with no press conference next week, when the festival will take place, questions have been raised about whether political considerations came into play.

Previously, juries of several international film festivals faced questions about conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, that came to dominate them.

But the Venice Film Festival said that avoiding politically explosive questions is not the reason.

Instead, it was a scheduling conflict.

With Maggie Gyllenhaal set to head this year’s Venice Film Festival international jury, she will be joined by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, English composer and artist Daniel Blumberg, Italian professor Francesco Casetti, French filmmaker Xavier Giannoli, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat and Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To.