Masks and distancing: the Venice festival is shielding itself from the virus

Published on : 21/08/2020 – 12:30

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Rome (AFP)

Masks and distancing: the Venice Film Festival, which will be the first major film festival since the start of the pandemic from September 2 to 12, unveiled a vast prevention plan on Friday in a worrying context of the resurgence of the virus in Europe.

The festival, “in collaboration with the health authorities, has developed anti-Covid 19 protection measures (…) in order to ensure the protection of all guests and visitors”, announced the Mostra in a press release listing all the measures adopted to avoid contagions, while Italy, and in particular the region of Venice, is experiencing a worrying increase in new cases.

The site of the oldest film festival in the world, which takes place on the Venice Lido by the sea, “will be accessible to participants and the public through nine entrances overlooking the streets or the lagoon, equipped with thermal scanners”. “Access will be prohibited to anyone with a temperature of 37.5 degrees or more”.

“Disinfectant gels will be made available to the public everywhere: screening rooms, entrances, corridors, meeting places …”, and wearing a mask will be compulsory “in the screening rooms, as well as in the queue than to get to its headquarters and throughout the screening “, as well as” in all external areas “of the perimeter of the festival.

As for social distancing, “the number of available seats will be reduced by alternating occupied and empty seats”.

In addition, “the public and accredited visitors will have to reserve their place in advance online, on the site www.labiennale.org”. “Tickets will be sold exclusively online to avoid queues.”

The famous red carpet, emblem of the festival where the stars crowd every day in evening dress, is not spared by security measures: “the public will not be allowed to attend the entrance of delegations to avoid crowds “.

The teams of the films represented in Venice “will be offered a transport system to avoid gatherings”, and like every year, “an emergency medical service will be available to the public”.

Finally, the festival requires all guests and accredited visitors coming from outside the Schengen zone to “take a test before their departure”. “A second test will be carried out (for these same people) in Venice under the supervision of the festival,” he said.

The scale and detail of these measures show that the festival management is keen to avoid a catastrophic scenario that would see the Lido turn into a hotbed of contagions. Faced with the first wave of the coronavirus, the Cannes film festival had to cancel its 2020 edition, and Venice therefore promises to be the post-Covid reunion of world cinema.

This year, 18 films from around the world, from Mexico to Azerbaijan to Israel, are in the running for the prestigious Golden Lion for Best Film, to be awarded by a jury chaired by Australian star Cate Blanchett.

© 2020 AFP

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