For Venice fest, MIFED not in competition.

"There really is nothing I don't like about the Venice Film Festival," insisted Mike Ryan, chairman of the Independent Film and Television Association and its market, the American Film Market (AFM). He added, "Its position in the festival calendar is now the equal of Cannes. Even if last year's running of it had [Miramax head] Harvey Weinstein threatening to throw Moritz [de Hadeln, former director of the Venice Fest] into the lagoon!" He continued, "I like the style of Venice, it has the unmistakable feel of La Dolce Vita about it. Italians have such fantastic style, and that's obvious at the Venice Film Festival." Ryan is also creative director of U.K. distributor IAC Films and, as such, revealed that, "it is also much easier to get big names to go to Venice than it is to get them to go to Cannes."

This year's Festival, which takes place August 31-September 10, will showcase just 60 movies in three categories: "Competition," "Out Of Competition," and "Orizzonti" (or "Horizons"). Those in competition will be judged by a panel chaired by Hollywood art designer Dante Ferretti, who won an Oscar in 2005 for his work on The Aviator. Among those titles in competition are Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, John Turturro's Romance and Cigarettes, Patrice Chereau's Gabrielle and Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener. Of the 19 films in competition, seven are Italian productions or co-productions.

The world premiere of Qi Jian (Seven Swords), by Tsui Hark, will be the opening event of this year's festival. Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova, starring Heath Ledger as the eponymous lover, and costarring Sienna Miller and Jeremy Irons, will be the featured movie at the Gala Evening on September 3. And this year, Hayao Miyazaki, director of Japanese animated films, will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Thorsten Schaumann, head of sales at Bavaria Film International, is also a fan of the Festival. "It is very high profile, and enables a film to get a lot of attention from both press and buyers on a worldwide basis," he averred.

The press at Venice is another factor that counts for Penny Wolf, former managing director of HBO Films, who said: "Venice is more easy-going then Cannes. The French can be a bit unforgiving towards movies they don't like ... as a result, if you have a film at Venice that isn't being that well received, the press is not likely to be so adverse as it might be in Cannes."

Bavaria's Schaumann also likes the openness of the Festival. In fact, "it is the thing I like most about Venice," he revealed, "It is very open, and there is easy access to all the films; it is easy for people to meet, exchange ideas and do business." Schaumann went on: "there has been talk recently of adding a formal market to Venice, but it isn't really necessary."

Mike Ryan agreed. "Some people have suggested a possible link between MIFED and Venice. Now," he added wryly, "I suppose there are those who would say that, as chairman of AFM, I should stay out of this one, but to add MIFED to Venice would be a mistake. At all major festivals people meet and talk, and deals get done. To add a formal market would cheapen Venice, it would detract from the glamour."

HBO's Wolf also disparaged the idea "of merging MIFED with Venice, or at least of adding a formal market ... This would not be a good idea."

"There is honestly nothing I don't like about the Venice Film Festival," insisted Ryan, "it is at the perfect time, the weather is great, the location is fantastic and they show great movies," adding, "there are those that complain about the Lido, but it has a sort of charm to it, and anyway, people who complain about the Lido in Venice are the sort of people who go to Sundance and don't ski!"

Thorsten Schaumann said: "Venice has maintained its position of pre-eminent importance, mostly because of the selection of movies, which, over the years, has been of a consistently high level of quality and interest."

"Venice," concurred Wolf, "is an exciting and dynamic festival. Everybody loves going there, the food is great, the weather is great and the programming is much better and much more high-profile than it used to be."

"There is no question," said AFM's Ryan, "that over the years Venice has become more commercial, and some think it has gone too far in this direction, and would like to see a move away from the current programming, to see the inclusion of more Italian movies. But, this would run the risk of mucking it all up. And, frankly, last year's Italian movies were shitty."

In terms of programming, Bavaria's Schaumann said, "balance is important to a festival like Venice, and the key to good programming is to maintain that balance between mainstream and art-house, so that the overall package you present is compelling."

Such a move would also disappoint HBO's Wolf, who observed, "since it raised its profile, Venice now gets a lot more Pacific Rim distributors, especially Japanese and Australians who simply wouldn't have gone before, when it was much more European."

For all the positive comments, there is one recurring complaint--that the Festival is poorly organized.

"I didn't go last year," admitted Ryan, "but I gather the organization was awful. Apparently there were stars turning up to screenings of their own movies who couldn't get a seat. Now that would piss me off. Ultimately, though, it is just a matter of organization, and so it shouldn't be impossible [to fix]."

"The main problem last year," offered Wolf, "was that they simply tried to program too many movies. As a result, there were some very high-profile names that simply got submerged. But, Marco [Muller, director of the Venice Film Festival] appreciates that now."

And Mike Ryan, for one, believes that if "they maintain the current programming, and get a grip on the administration, I can only see Venice getting stronger and stronger. In the final analysis," he opined, "all great festivals operate on two levels--programming and glamour, and Venice has both."