How Italian cinema is using the Hollywood strike to its advantage

The Venice Film Festival has always hosted Italian films, but never more than three. This year, the screens of the lagoon counted no less than six Italian presences, the highest number of the last 25 years, and a selection of particularly ambitious films, whose budgets exceeded 7 million euros - a figure that until a decade ago was considered very expensive for Italian productions. Italian films have changed a lot since the pandemic and today, in order to catch up, they aim to attract a new type of spectator. With the increase in public subsidies for cinema, Italian productions have become bigger and better as many are designed to reach wider audiences, even abroad. With this in mind, Italian cinema has started do indulge in genres that previously weren't usually considered in its chords such as war films, fantasies and even detective stories, all the while maintaining high technical standards - on the wave of successes such as Gomorrah, which were greatly appreciated abroad.

Why is Hollywood on strike? 

Together with this favourable period, Italian cinema is setting higher box-office expectations, favoured by  American films' absence from theatres. In the coming months, very few Hollywood productions will be debuting on the silver screen due to the ongoing writers' strike, to which the actors' strike was added just over a month ago. The ongoing unrest stems from the fact that unions and the association representing big studios cannot reach an agreement on two issues that are considered very important in the sector: the first concerns payments and better conditions, with respect to the so-called 'residuals', namely copyright royalties for the re-use of works - much has changed with the spread of streaming platforms; the second has to do with the regulation of the use of artificial intelligence in the industry. Among the effects of this turmoil is precisely the reduction in the number of films and series made in America and distributed worldwide.

The revival of Italian films at the Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival is the first major international event in the film industry to take place since the actors' and screenwriters' strikes began. Given their impact on the destruction of American films, and the fact that there are many ambitious Italian films in competition, the Venetian kermesse could be the forerunner to a favourable season for Italian cinema. There could be more opportunities for the promotion of Italian films, which would then create more financial opportunities for italian productions - especially if they are as aspirational as those presented in Venice. Moreover, the effects of the strikes (which do not seem to be coming to an end) will be felt at least until the end of 2024 - even during next year, therefore, we will see a reduction in the number of American films and TV series, and in this period Italian cinema could try to impose itself more.

The American films that have moved their release date

The distribution of Italian films, in our country and abroad, struggles to compete with American films - which have much higher budgets and can exploit world-famous actors and actresses. As a result of the strikes, which have generated delays throughout the distribution chain, Hollywood studios have already moved the release date of films of great media importance, such as Dune 2, starring Timothée Chalamet, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim (a spin-off of The Lord Of The Rings). Challengers, Luca Guadagnino's film starring Zendaya that was supposed to open the Venice Film Festival, also ended up in this spiral: in its place was an Italian film, Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino as a submarine commander during the Second World War. Although the two films will evidently play different leagues, it is a coincidence that in some ways demonstrates the space that Italian cinema is taking and will continue to take in the coming months.