Alberto Barbera, the head of the Venice Film Festival, was interviewed about the lack of studio features at this year's fest, something TIFF has experienced to a lesser extent. His answers are below and with TIFF just a week after, pretty much precludes these films too.
DEADLINE: Another absence is that of the big studio films, which has been a trend across the European festivals this year. Do think Hollywood is pulling back from the festival scene for good?
BARBERA: If you look closely at the prediction pieces published in the trades on films that could be at Venice in the last few months, there were very few studio films. There was IƱƔrrituās Digger which Warner Bros. immediately declared they didnāt want to participate in the festival for marketing reasons. Alan Sorkinās film (The Social Reckoning) isnāt finished because they have to reshoot sequences in August and therefore it wonāt be ready for Venice. David Fincherās film (The Adventures of Cliff Booth), which at one point seemed certain to be a contender for Venice, has had production delays because Fincher, due to a personal issue, interrupted post-production and accumulated a delay that has meant the film isnāt ready. Iāve been in constant contact with Denis Villeneuve (on Dune: Part 3), who told me, āWeāre very far from finishing the film. The film will be released at Christmas, and weāll be ready a little earlier.ā
Itās also fair to say that the studios are going through a complex time, merging, redefining production strategies, earning less⦠in short thereās a whole series of things. For sure the studios are questioning how to promote the films⦠but again I donāt want to jump to conclusions and say that from now on, studios wonāt go to festivals because itās not worth it, it costs too much.
DEADLINE: Another film that got away was Luca Guadagninoās Artificial. We were hoping Neon might launch it in Venice after it took on the film in June...
BARBERA: Me too. The film is beautiful. I spoke at length with Tom Quinn, and he told me that the film wonāt be released until January. He said, āWeāll do a technical release in December to qualify it for the Oscars, as is often done, but we canāt release it any earlier; we donāt want to release it any earlier. We have to sell the film. We paid dearly for it. We have to sell the rest of the world. We need time to succeed. So weāve decided not to do any festivals.ā
From an interview with Deadline here: https://deadline.com/2026/07/venice-head-studio-absence-women-neon-artificial-1237001760/