Venice Film Festival jury president Julianne Moore this afternoon extolled the importance of keeping art top of mind when talking about the future of cinema.
During the event’s opening press conference, the actress, who won the 2002 Volpi Cup here for Far From Heaven, was asked about the age of streaming, and said, “I feel like so often the discussion around the future of cinema ends up being a discussion that’s more commercial, more business oriented. For me, most importantly, it’s what’s being created, what do we continue to make, how are we able to ingest it, observe it, live with it? There will always be different delivery systems.” The world is constantly changing, she added, “but art doesn’t change… People are always finding new ways to tell stories.”
She later reiterated, “It’s so exciting when you see a brand new filmmaker, actor, writer… When we talk about the future of cinema it often degrades into what the future of the business is. That’s not the future of art.”
Moore was also big on the importance of curation, “It’s people gathering this extraordinary work for us all to discover,” and recalled that the first curator she ever met was the programmer of the local cinema where she grew up in Juneau, Alaska.
Mixed in with seeing Disney movies, at age 10, she discovered John Cassavetes’ Minnie And Moskowitz and thought, “To see that and to say, ‘What’s this world out there and how do I fit in it?’ that to me is the most important part of filmmaking and being in films. It’s so important to come to Venice where there has been this curation and a tremendous opportunity to learn.”
Of her jury duties, Moore recalled first coming to Venice in 1986 when she was “an actress on a soap opera” (playing As The World Turns‘ Frannie Hughes) and laughed, “If I had known then that I would be jury president, I would have fallen in the canal.”
A recurring theme here already over the past few days has been the importance of international film, and Moore said she finds it “immensely gratifying to watch movies in other languages… Just looking at human beings and what their situation is, it’s inspiring and makes you feel closer.” During the festival, she added, “I have no idea what to expect… To not know what you’re going to see” is “electrifying.”
Joining Moore on the main jury are Argentine director Mariano Cohn, Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo, French director and 2021 Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan, Iranian actress Leila Hatami, Japanese-UK writer Kazuo Ishiguro and Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.