Venice Film Festival Reverses Course and Reinstates Jury Press Conference After Backlash
The Venice Film Festival has reinstated its traditional jury press conference, reversing a decision to scrap the event just days before the festival opens on September 2. The reversal was confirmed to Deadline on Sunday, August 30, after the outlet's reporting on the cancellation triggered a wave of criticism.
The saga unfolded over 48 hours. A top festival executive had told Deadline that the press conference — the annual opener where jurors field questions from the world's media — was cancelled due to "coinciding commitments," a scheduling conflict. As a remedy, the festival offered what the executive called a "more relaxed welcome cocktail" with some press. Variety reported the decision as a resolution of "scheduling issues." Deadline flagged its story to the festival ahead of publication, and the backlash that followed led festival organisers to change course.
The timing was always going to be sensitive. An open letter urging the Venice Biennale and its film festival to take "concrete action in support of Palestine" has been signed by Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux, musician Roger Waters, and film-makers Matteo Garrone and Isabel Coixet, among others. The Wrap reported that the scrapping of the press conference came as that letter was circulating. The 2026 festival lineup includes the Israel-Gaza documentary NAZA and the Russian film DAU — selections that would have made any jury Q&A a charged affair.
Recent festival history added another layer. At the 2025 Venice jury press conference, jury head Alexander Payne admitted he was "unprepared" to answer questions about Gaza as political issues dominated the session. Earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, the opening jury press conference became a flashpoint when jury president Wim Wenders said film-makers should stay out of politics, in response to a question on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Cancelling this year's press conference looked, to critics, like an attempt to avoid a repeat.
That pressure did the work. By Sunday, the festival confirmed the press conference is back on the schedule.
The 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival, organised by La Biennale di Venezia, runs from September 2 to September 12, 2026, on the Lido di Venezia. The international jury is chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal, with members including Tunisian film-maker Kaouther Ben Hania, composer Daniel Blumberg, film scholar Francesco Casetti, French director Xavier Giannoli, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, and Hong Kong film-maker Johnnie To — a panel that will decide the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize, at the closing ceremony.
What makes this stand out is how quickly the festival folded once the cancellation became public. Venice's opening jury press conference is rarely headline news outside the trade press. But with an open letter demanding solidarity with Palestine, a lineup that touches the Israel-Gaza conflict directly, and last year's jury session already scarred by political questions, the decision to cancel — and the speed of the reversal — turned a scheduling note into a story about how festivals handle pressure they did not choose.
