The Venice Film Festival has unveiled its official poster by Italian illustrator and author Lorenzo Mattotti, and announced that a film by Venice native Andrea Segre looking at how the fest navigated COVID-19 last year will screen as its pre-opening event.
Titled “La Biennale di Venezia: il cinema al tempo del Covid,” which translates to “The Venice Biennale: Cinema in the time of Covid,” the pre-opener will screen on Aug. 31. The project is a video diary chronicling how Venice pulled off last year’s edition as a physical event, becoming the only top-tier international film festival to do so. Pic is produced by the Venice Biennale, the arts foundation that oversees the Venice fest, with Italy’s RAI Cinema and Istituto Luce Cinecittà.
On its pre-opening night, Venice will also screen a freshly restored copy of 1971 Italian classic “Per grazia ricevuta” (Between Miracles), directed by and starring the late great actor-director Nino Manfredi, whose centennial runs this year.
As previously announced, Venice will open on Sept. 1 with Pedro Almodóvar’s new film “Parallel Mothers,” starring Penelope Cruz, which was shot during the pandemic.
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As for the festival’s official poster, which features two people filming one another in a sort of dance, it marks the fourth consecutive Venice collaboration for Mattotti, who besides being an illustrator whose work appears regularly on the cover of The New Yorker, among other publications, is also director of the 2019 animated film “The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily.”
The 78th edition of Venice will run Sept. 1-11. The lineup will be announced on July 26.