This year’s Venice Film Festival is the most star-studded in recent memory. The list of A-listers heading to the Lido’s red carpet — Brad Pitt and George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Jenna Ortega, Daniel Craig, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga — boggles the mind.
But the international film journalists attending this year’s festival are complaining they are being shut out of this celebrity feast, with studios and PR agents blocking access to stars for press interviews. Few of the top VIPs in Venice this year are doing international press interviews or taking part in “junkets” where the cast of a movie does sit-down interviews with journalists from international outlets. Pitt, Jolie, Clooney, and many more will only be doing the official festival press conference and nothing else. Tim Burton and the cast of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice walked the Venice red carpet for the world premiere of...
But the international film journalists attending this year’s festival are complaining they are being shut out of this celebrity feast, with studios and PR agents blocking access to stars for press interviews. Few of the top VIPs in Venice this year are doing international press interviews or taking part in “junkets” where the cast of a movie does sit-down interviews with journalists from international outlets. Pitt, Jolie, Clooney, and many more will only be doing the official festival press conference and nothing else. Tim Burton and the cast of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice walked the Venice red carpet for the world premiere of...
- 8/29/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When Warner Bros. premiered Don’t Worry Darling at the Venice Film Festival last year, the studio must have been hoping reports of production problems and on-set disputes for Olivia Wilde’s new film would be replaced with glossy glamour shots of the film’s A-list stars, Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, strutting the Lido’s red carpet.
Instead, they got #Spitgate.
A short video shot from the gallery during Don’t Worry‘s premiere, which, if you squint, purports to show Styles spitting on co-star Chris Pine just before he sits down next to him, became all anyone wanted to talk about. The video, viewed millions of times online, was given the Zapruder treatment. Instead of discussing Wilde’s stylish feminist thriller, Pugh’s performance or the shocking last-reel twist, the discussion focused on whether Harry did or didn’t gob on Chris, something Pine strongly denied.
“The buzz wasn’t about the film,...
Instead, they got #Spitgate.
A short video shot from the gallery during Don’t Worry‘s premiere, which, if you squint, purports to show Styles spitting on co-star Chris Pine just before he sits down next to him, became all anyone wanted to talk about. The video, viewed millions of times online, was given the Zapruder treatment. Instead of discussing Wilde’s stylish feminist thriller, Pugh’s performance or the shocking last-reel twist, the discussion focused on whether Harry did or didn’t gob on Chris, something Pine strongly denied.
“The buzz wasn’t about the film,...
- 2/16/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bill Murray, Chloe Sevigny, Adam Driver and Tilda Swinton will be among the slew of Hollywood stars ascending the Palais des Festivals’ red-carpet this evening for Jim Jarmusch’s opening film “The Dead Don’t Die,” one of several studio titles at Cannes’ 72nd edition that has been preceded by chatter about changing dynamics between the fest and the U.S. film industry and its pull in launching movies toward the Oscars.
“Last year I joked, ‘We’ll schedule Cannes in September,’ because people were obsessed with the Oscars. But that was a joke, obviously,” Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux told Variety last month after announcing the bulk of this year’s lineup. He went on to add that “Cannes is in May, and we do show American films, and we are still paying attention to the Oscars.”
Indeed, while in recent years Cannes has been overtaken by Venice in terms...
“Last year I joked, ‘We’ll schedule Cannes in September,’ because people were obsessed with the Oscars. But that was a joke, obviously,” Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux told Variety last month after announcing the bulk of this year’s lineup. He went on to add that “Cannes is in May, and we do show American films, and we are still paying attention to the Oscars.”
Indeed, while in recent years Cannes has been overtaken by Venice in terms...
- 5/14/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Engel also co-founded UK distributor New Wave Films.
Art-house “trailblazer” Pamela Engel, known for co-founding distributor Artificial Eye and programming London cinemas including the Lumiere, Chelsea Cinema, Camden Plaza and the Renoir, has died aged 82.
A huge figure in the UK’s independent film business, Engel’s death has sparked messages of praise across the distribution and exhibition sectors.
Born Pamela Balfry in 1934, the UK executive started out in the late 1950s as a secretary for then Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston.
She would go on to work as an assistant to Richard Roud at the London and New York Film Festivals before joining Derek Hill’s art-house venue Essential Cinema in the late 1960s.
Odyssey
Balfry and first husband Andi Engel established distributor Artificial Eye in 1976, thus “beginning an odyssey of distribution and exhibition unlikely ever to be surpassed,” in the words of former London Film Festival director Sheila Whitaker.
Despite separating...
Art-house “trailblazer” Pamela Engel, known for co-founding distributor Artificial Eye and programming London cinemas including the Lumiere, Chelsea Cinema, Camden Plaza and the Renoir, has died aged 82.
A huge figure in the UK’s independent film business, Engel’s death has sparked messages of praise across the distribution and exhibition sectors.
Born Pamela Balfry in 1934, the UK executive started out in the late 1950s as a secretary for then Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston.
She would go on to work as an assistant to Richard Roud at the London and New York Film Festivals before joining Derek Hill’s art-house venue Essential Cinema in the late 1960s.
Odyssey
Balfry and first husband Andi Engel established distributor Artificial Eye in 1976, thus “beginning an odyssey of distribution and exhibition unlikely ever to be surpassed,” in the words of former London Film Festival director Sheila Whitaker.
Despite separating...
- 7/17/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
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