Inflation in Venice: between vaporetti and accommodation, it’s a rip-off!

Where we left off. A year ago, when, at the end of the final awards ceremony, the president of the Venice Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, announced that the 83rd Venice International Film Festival would be held from 2 to 12 September 2026, panic broke out in the auditorium: “But that’s too late!”, “Schools are starting again!”, “I’ve got to get back to the office!”, “Oh dear, my husband!”. Initially, it was assumed that no one would be here at the Lido this year; yet here we all are, queuing to collect our press passes, just like every year. And in a queue, as we know, people complain; not so much about the queue itself – which is moving along smoothly in this case – nor about the heat, given that it’s quite breezy in Venice at the moment; here at the Lido, people are complaining about the costs. The era of ‘woke’ is truly over: economic issues have even made their way to the Venice Film Festival. After all, inflation on the Lido is four times higher than in the rest of Italy; this year, the press pass doesn’t even grant free access to the vaporetti or land transport – you have to pay for a travel pass (albeit at a discount); and public transport in Venice is expensive, almost as much as accommodation. Some delegates stay in Mestre, others camp, and some simply wander about; still others rent an apartment on the Lido and share it with eight flatmates to split the costs.

The economic issue lies at the root of it all: there are no films from the major Hollywood studios at this year’s Venice Film Festival, just as there were none at Cannes; many say this is because the studios no longer want to face scathing reviews from critics at festivals (the film industry is the only sector in the world that still fears journalists); but the truth is that even the studios are in crisis: it was reported this summer that the sequel to Barbie won’t be made because the actors and director are demanding too much money. The only thing missing is for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to launch a campaign against cuts to culture, just like any two Italian actors. Ultimately, most of the people here at the Lido are here at their own expense: for many it’s an investment, for others a rip-off, but for a great many it’s a passion, an unmissable event. Of course, there are those here who come to be seen (these days there are more people on the red carpet than outside asking for a selfie), but most people are here simply to watch – and not the people mentioned above, but the films. We’re coming off the best July for cinema ever; in Italy, Nolan’s Ode to Joy and the new Spider-Man film have drawn millions of people to the cinemas, and brought in just as many millions of euros; and not just for the air conditioning. Audiences want to go to the cinema, and the risk is that there will not be enough room in the auditoriums: on the booking website, most films are sold out from the very first minute; I myself could not find a seat for more than half the screenings I wanted to attend, so I will have to keep refreshing the site in search of last-minute tickets, like a gambling addict at the slots hoping for three strawberries in a row. The Festival programme is packed again this year, but as always on the eve of the event, the absences carry more weight than the presences. Above all, however, Elon Musk’s Odyssey is missing – the one the trillionaire had announced he would create entirely with AI in response to Nolan’s film. There is, though, a documentary about Musk, provided Elon doesn’t boycott it by launching a drone attack on the Lido. Let us hope that the cinemas here have air-conditioning as well as air-raid shelters.