If you’re wondering what influencers, small screen stars and little-known faces are doing to us on the red carpet of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, the answer can be found in the following slogan: “It’s an advertisement.” , beauty!” . Especially this year, when many Hollywood movie stars have given up – including Carey Mulligan, Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Penelope Cruz – due to a strike called on July 14 (from calls for regulation), artificial intelligence, higher streaming fees and higher minimum wages), the presence of characters who have little, and often nothing at all, to the world of cinema is especially striking: these are not actresses and not actors, screenwriters, editors. producers, photographers or their families.Sometimes not even fans of the seventh art.
But if it makes a lot of people turn up their noses, inviting “famous”, “signed” and “influencers” (in the age of social media) to competition film premieres will neither be a new practice nor an end in itself, but it will be the same way. promote your work like anyone else. “It has always been like this in the history of the festival, it has been happening since the 1940s,” explains film critic Gabriele Niola. “The premiere of the film, that is, where the red carpet is, is, in fact, an evening by invitation. Tickets can also be bought, but there are few of them: most of the seats are reserved for invitations made directly from the organization of the film festival or from productions. A significant portion of these invitations are for the people who worked on the film: the actors and their families, the director and their families, the editor, the screenwriter, and everyone involved in the production, really. The rest is reserved for people who are interested in producing, promoting and Mostra del Cinema in being photographed for one reason or another, not in watching a movie. Because the goal is always to end up in the papers, of course, and to get into the papers, you need famous people.”
The objection naturally arises: some of them are not so well known. “That’s true,” Niola continues, “but there is a lot of speculation that a person may not be known to the target audience, but will definitely achieve another goal. And then, as always happens in Italy, but the same thing happens in Cannes, mind you, there is a certain proportion of “friends” that a filmmaker has to invite, tritely, to exchange favors.” Therefore, the swarm of characters, for the most part, is very popular on social networks, who preface their red carpet with posts in which they sponsor brands of creams, not perfumes , not clothes, shoes or cosmetics.Even cocktails and so on and so forth.
“That’s the reason they agree,” explains Gabriele Niola, “if they couldn’t monetize their presence, they probably wouldn’t even have a reason to walk the red carpet, although their account might be much more exposed” . Thus, on the one hand, the prestige, on the one hand, the economic benefit from the opportunity to cover with your sponsors a target audience that is different from the one that often visits social networks. “Since the beginning of the festival, the red carpet has been full of people who have nothing to do with the film: maybe before, instead of an influencer, there was a starlet, the producer’s mistress, but in any case, these are invitations that are given for conveniences that have nothing to do to the film. The most exciting thing is when there are “bricks” in the competition, and the red carpet is full of super-frivolous people.”
And if anyone thinks that all of this might devalue the importance or quality of the event, stop immediately: “It’s just the opposite!” Niola warns. “I don’t have any interests, but I hope it stays that way if it doesn’t increase, because what keeps the Venice Film Festival and every other film festival alive, including its cultural part, is the echo that it manages to have. echo can be achieved in many ways: this is a very important way. It’s a virtuous circle in which, for better or worse, everyone wins.” Long live glamor and advertising: “There are many festivals without glamor and without sponsors. And no one knows about them.”