Venice Chief Alberto Barbera on Hollywood’s Festival Retreat, Gender Parity Backslide and the AI Question - The Hollywood Reporter

What the report says

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera after he announced the lineup for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Thursday. The competition slate includes films featuring or led by Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy and Alicia Vikander, along with new work from Martin McDonagh, Lee Chang-dong and Werner Herzog. Barbera described the program as a mix of established names and emerging filmmakers, with more documentaries than usual.

A central issue in the interview was the limited presence of major Hollywood studio titles. Barbera said the festival had hoped for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise film, but Warner Bros. chose a direct October release strategy. He also said Aaron Sorkin’s film was not finished because of planned reshoots, David Fincher’s Brad Pitt project had been delayed, and other rumored studio films were not ready. He framed the absence as tied to production timing and changing marketing strategies rather than a definitive studio retreat from festivals.

Barbera also addressed why Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” is not headed to the Lido. According to the report, he had seen and admired the film, but said Neon, which acquired it after Amazon MGM dropped it, was not prepared for a fall festival launch and planned an awards-qualifying release before a broader 2027 rollout.

The report highlighted a major gender-parity setback: only one of the 20 competition films, May El-Toukhy’s Danish drama “Woman Unknown,” is directed by a woman. Barbera also said a withdrawn European Commission grant to the Biennale’s arts exhibition would not affect the Venice Production Bridge or Biennale College programs.