The Venice film festival will be the first in-person film festival since the pandemic began. After becoming the onetime COVID-19 epicenter in Europe, it is one of the first major international events that Italy is hosting. After getting infections under control with a strict, 10-week national lockdown that ended in May, Italy is now rebounding.
The Venice Film Festival, the first major in-person cinema event of the COVID-19 era, will require participants to wear face masks during screenings and take a corona-virus test if they are coming from outside Europe.
According to guidelines published Thursday, "fans and the general public will be kept away from the red carpet during the Sept. 2-12 festival, and movie-goers will have to buy tickets and reserve seats online to ensure every other seat is left vacant".
The Toronto and New York film festivals which will be after the Venice film festival will be largely virtual this year. In Italy, movie-goers must wear face masks to enter movie theaters but can remove them once seated. The organizers, however, are requiring masks indoors and out as well as throughout the screenings.
In addition, People arriving from outside Europe’s open-border Schengen area must take a virus test before arriving and will be tested again courtesy of the Biennale once in Venice, the guidelines said.
Biennale organizers said the guidelines were worked out with local health care officials.