Venice Film Festival @ 80: Memorable Moments & Stars 1932-2023 – Photo Gallery

The 80th Venice Film Festival is underway against a backdrop of two Hollywood strikes and shifting industry sands.

As our photo gallery shows, the world’s oldest film festival is saturated in history, and much of it has been sprinkled with Hollywood and international star dust, from Sophia Loren to Paul Newman, and Harry Belafonte to Timothée Chalamet.

Not all of its history has been palatable. Founded by Giuseppe Volpi, a member of the Italian fascist party, the festival has always formed part of Venice’s the Biennale, one of the world’s oldest exhibitions of art. In the 1940s, the event saw some of its darkest days, overshadowed as it was by Italy’s fascist alliance with the Nazis. The event was even briefly renamed the Italian-German Film Festival and then ceased for multiple years during the war.

Soon after World War II, the event began to blossom into an international celebration of cinema. The festival was not untouched by the political upheaval of the late 1960s and became non-competitive for a period of time. Amid political turmoil in Italy in the 1970s, the event was canceled for multiple years.

More recently, the festival has become a major Oscar launch pad as well as a home for buzzy streamer movies. Among U.S. movies to launch at the event over the last decade are Gravity, Birdman, Spotlight, La La Land, The Shape of Water, The Favourite, Roma, Joker, Nomadland and Dune.

The event was one of the first to brave the Covid pandemic, defying the odds to stage a functional and successful festival despite a raft of health restrictions.

Venice holds a special place in the hearts and minds of most film festival regulars. The event is known for its heady mix of industry glamour, soaring cinema and Italian bella figura, all unfolding on the ultra civilized environs of the Lido.

Here is Deadline’s photo gallery dedicated to the festival through the ages. Enjoy.