by Alex Deleon

The 2017 Venice Film Festival was so overwhelmingly dominated by Hollywood films and personalities that it was to all intents and purposes an American festival that happened to be taking place in Italy.  First of all the career awards.  Tandem career Lions were presented to senior Hollywood icons, Robert Redford (81) and one time First Lady of Protest Jane Fonda (79) on the second night of the fest. Both still looking good in spite of their dental lengthiness and the media coverage treated this as the main event of the entire fest.  Another career award in the name of recently deceased Vogue editor Franca Sozzani was bestowed upon actress Julianne Moore in a complete evening devoted only to this  event. Her award was presented by popular actor Ewan McGregor.

The opening night film out of competition was a Hollywood premier, "Downsizing" starring Matt Damon. Damon also starred in the competition film "Suburbicon" by George Clooney and was prominently around in the social scene.   Clooney and gorgeously expectant Iranian-English wife Amal were high profile guests of the fest and much fodder for media splash.

The daily arriving guest list was again dominated by Hollywood names, most of whom had films on view here. 

A representative sampling: Jennifer Lawrence, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ethan Hawke, Guillermo del Torro, Darren Aronovsky, Paul Schrader, on and on ...

And to top it all off the president of the international competition jury this year was American actress Annette Bening (Mrs. Warren Beatty).

Of course there were plenty of films and personalies from elsewhere, almost everywhere -- but, like it or not, it was basically a Hollywood show -- not complaining, just commenting on the passing scene. 

Director Aronovsky with actors of his film "Mother"; Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Lawrence, and Javier Bardem of Spain.

Matt Damon in formal attire with Japanese actress Sachiko, on arm.