As the Cannes Film festival came to a close rumors for the Venice Film Festival started coming into fruition forcing newly appointed artistic director Alberto Barbera to reveal a couple of directors who may bring projects to the prestigious festival in Lido.
Barbera stated that likely candidates for the festival included Paul Thomas Anderson for "The Master", Terrence Malick for "To The Wonder" and Brian De Palma for "Passion." He also mentioned Italian directors Silvio Soldini (Come Undone), Marco Bellocchio (Vincere) and Gabriele Salvatores (I'm not Scared).
The Hollywood Reporter states that In his remarks to Italian reporters, Barbera mentioned that he wanted a "more sober, less glitzy" festival in attempts to redefine the festival. Barbarera told journalists "We're starting a change in Venice's skin, in which within two or three years we will have a nice rebirth. The festival is like a grand old lady, a refined lady, but one in need of being freshened up. I believe a festival should take responsibility for its choice, and not to simply select dozens and dozens of titles."
His plan includes slimming down the number of films admitted into the festival by showing less than 50 films and only allowing 18 films compete for top awards. He will also only have 12 out of competition films and the Contracampo Italiano, a separate section of the festival for Italian-made films, will be eliminated. The idea is to give more attention to the films chosen. Back in January, Barbera stated that did not like films that had no niche and that he would like Venice to have important films even if that meant not giving a full panorama of what was available.
Barbera also spoke about bringing more international productions and unearthing new directors from Colombia, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Thailand.
Barbera also has the idea of creating a market for the festival He stated that "Creating a kind of light market in Venice will quickly create a meeting point for producers and distributors from around the world.The idea is to strengthen the business aspect of the festival, because we know that today it can be difficult to find the money to back new productions, and an event like this can help."
Alberto Barbera, 61, who was the Turin Film Festival for 10 years was appointed as Artistic director in December replacing Marco Mueller who had run the festival for eight years. Mueller is now in charge of the rival Rome International Film Festival.
The Venice Film Festival was founded in 1932 by Giuseppe Volpi as the Esposizione International d'Arte Cinematografica. Last year's Golden Lion award went to Alexander Sokurov's Faust.
The 2012 Festival will take place from August 29 to September 8, 2012