Mostra Internazionale d Arte Cinematografica Venice

Cinema Danieli – An Unforgettable Story -  was hosted by the Variety magazine and the Hotel Danieli

By Alice Kanterian

The best party takes place in Venice just before the Mostra del Cinema starts. The evening, titled this year “Cinema Danieli – An Unforgettable Story,” has become a huge success and a festival tradition dating back 13 years. The event is dedicated to the head of the jury, hosted and promoted by the Variety magazine in collaboration with the prestigious Hotel Danieli, which turns 200 this year. The event was organised this year by Eva Reidt, Markting Executive at Hotel Danieli and took place on the large top floor terrace with an unforgettable view over Venice.

This year the pre-festival cocktail took place on August 30 just before the festival kicked off the following day and in his welcome speach Claudio Staderini, director of the Hotel Danieli, described the hotel as a shooting and residential choice of the biggest movie stars in the world. The unforgetable event was dedicated to Julianne Moore, the head of the jury, and so the decoration included pictures of her in various films. Her fellow members Iranian actrice Leila Hatami and filmmakers Audrey Diwan, Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, were present as was “Thor: Love and Thunder” actrice Tessa Thompson, who is serving on the festival’s Horizons strand jury. They were all interacting with the other exclusive guests from the industry while Julianne was hiding most of the time in a room in the back and was excused by Alberto Barbera for beeing shy. What a pitty, we all love Julianne and while I didn`t get the chance to approach her in Venice, I had it many years ago in 2009 in London at the BFI at the premiere party of „Chloe“ by Armenian Canadian director Atom Egoyan. Starring Julian Moore and Amanda Seyfried, this erotic thriller was also Egoyan's highest-grossing film worldwide. I met Egoyan first in Cannes and later in Yerevan where he serves as president of the Film Festival „Golden Apricot“ (10-17.07.2022) which I attended this year. Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, and the country is currently in the head lines and its population in danger after Azerbaijan has launched a major attack on 4 Armenian cities on 13.09 at 00:05h! This is shocking and I just returned from Armenia previous Venice! And with the media focused on the war in Ukraine, the EU flirting with Azerbaijan's despot Aliyev for the Azeri gaz and oil ressurces and the major role as a transit country for the pipelines from the Caspian Sea and a wounded Russia who has protected Armenia in the past, Armenia stands alone. The bombing is bagatellized as new escalations between the two countries, and the important difference, that it is not the old ethnic and territorial conflict about the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, but now cities in Armenia attacked, not clear in the media, and an invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan imminent.

But this aggresion happened after the closing of the festival and now getting back to it's beginning Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera commented the unique location of the Variety and Danieli pre-festival cocktail overlooking the Gran Canale and the San Marco Square as “the best way to start the festival on the wonderful terrace of the Danieli, one of the most beautiful places in Venice, and the world.”

“We are happy to be here without masks, without COVID – it’s a situation under control,” Barbera continued: “We have 11 days in front of us of screenings, events, red carpets, parties, there is very high expectation about the festival.”

“We at Variety are impressed at the lineup of the film festival,” added Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh. “This is the official launch of the Oscar season for a reason. We have so many movie stars coming to Venice and we at Variety are excited to be covering the ins and outs of the festival.”

The cocktail was attended by the most important members of the press, industry and the festival’s, Danieli and Variety top management. Attendees included Eric Legendre, Managing Director, International, Variety, Manori Ravindran, the International Editor of Variety, Naman Ramachandran, the International Correspondent at Variety, Lady Bacardi, Raman Chawla, the new appointed festival director of a new edition of Abu Dhabi International Film Festival, Antonella Arseni Longhin from the BFFB Bolzano Film Festival Bozen, Romanian-Italian actress Madalina Ghenea, Antonella Isabel Coixet, Antonio Campos, Laura Bispuri, Marta Bencich, Rosalie Varda, Claudia Capodiferro, Luca Carta, Giulia Rosmarini, Angela Savoldi, Giulia D’agnolo Vallan, Evelyn O’Neill, Valentina Greggio, Ana Rocha de Sousa, Carmela Cotrone, Margarita Garcia Roayo, Francesca Montorio, Michela Campagnolo, Giulio Base, Tiziana Rocca, Edouard Waintrop, the artistic director of Red Sea Film Festival last year, Jan Matuszynski, Claudia Gioia, Raffaele Cinotti and fashion designers Muzy Burton from France and the American-Korean designer Grace Moon who is exploring the metaverse  and organised a fashion show on the Lido.

Alice Kanterian with Leila Hatami