Venice Film Festival Will Not Boycott Russian Filmmakers “Who Oppose Current Regime”

The Venice Film Festival says it will not ban Russian filmmakers or their films this year, as long as they are opposed to the current regime in the country. Scroll down to read the statement in full.

However, organizers say they will reject “any form of collaboration with those who on the contrary have carried out or supported such a grievous act of aggression”.

The fest will “therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government”.

The statement follows Cannes Film Festival yesterday saying it will follow a similar path, allowing Russian films but not welcoming official Russian delegations in 2022.

Both fests are reacting to a call from the Ukrainian Film Academy on Saturday for a widespread boycott of Russian cinema in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Initially, festivals including Stockholm and Glasgow said they would not show Russian movies this year, and the European Film Awards said it would not welcome such films this year, but there has been a counter-wave of opinion since, with some suggesting a boycott of Russian filmmakers, many of whom have consistently opposed the Putin regime, would be unjust.

Here’s Venice’s statement in full:

La Biennale di Venezia announces that it is collaborating and will collaborate in every way with the National Participation of Ukraine in the 59th International Art Exhibition (23 April – 27 November 2022) to ensure the presence of the artist and his team with his work, which he is strongly committed to complete despite the tragic situation in Ukraine.

La Biennale di Venezia intends thereby to manifest its full support to the Ukrainian people and to its artists, and express its firm condemnation of the unacceptable military aggression by Russia.

La Biennale is also close to all those in Russia who are courageously protesting against the war. Among them, artists and authors in every discipline, many of whom have been guests of La Biennale in the past. La Biennale di Venezia will not shut its doors to those who defend freedom of expression and demonstrate against the despicable and unacceptable decision to attack a sovereign state and its defenceless people. For those who oppose the current regime in Russia there will always be a place in the exhibitions of La Biennale, from Art to Architecture, and in its festivals, from Cinema to Dance, from Music to Theatre.

As long as this situation persists, La Biennale rejects any form of collaboration with those who on the contrary have carried out or supported such a grievous act of aggression, and will therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.

La Biennale is following the events of the war as it unfolds in Ukraine with apprehension, in the hope that international diplomacy will quickly negotiate a mutually agreed solution that will put an end to the death and suffering of an entire people and restore full freedom of action and movement to the world of culture.