The Magic of Venice, and the Venice International Film Festival

By David Bloom

In Venice, it has always been about the light. It dances on the waters of the city of canals. It has enticed travelers on the Grand Tour for centuries, entranced artists, and enthralled writers. So it’s fitting that Venice is also home to the planet’s oldest celebration of the art built upon light, filmmaking. 

It’s too soon to know the lineup for this year’s Venice International Film Festival, to be held Sept. 2 to Sept. 12 on the Lido di Venezia, the beach-lined barrier island protecting the lagoon in which the storied city sets. But it’s not too soon to know some of the experiences that will be part of the Take2Film journey on Sept. 1 to Sept. 6 to the Lido this year, according to Anne Maregiano, who programs the special events that make an extraordinary festival even more special for Take2Film travelers. 

Even without the festival lineup (it won’t come until July), you can expect the usual intoxicating mix of awards-season contenders, auteur-driven vehicles and Hollywood blockbusters. 

In the past 15 years, the festival has become ever more vital in Hollywood’s awards campaigns, a luxe launchpad for some of the world’s most lauded films, including Oscar Best Picture winners The Shape of Water, Nomadland, Spotlight, and Birdman. Many other recent Venice debuts have gone on to Oscar glory, if not the Best Picture, including Roma, La La Land, Gravity and Poor Things. 

That importance will only magnify following the Motion Picture Academy’s big change to Best International Feature eligibility, now allowing winners of the top festival prizes at Venice, Cannes, Toronto and a few others to automatically qualify, rather than relying on the choice of a local nominating organization approved by the committee. It’s a big shift that ups the stakes for international features with Oscar dreams, making Venice even more of a venue for awards campaigns of many types. 

As for Maregiano’s own Venice-set favorites, they include Visconti’s Senso, and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, made in 1973 and still an emotionally powerful film.   

Expect more of that with the latest debuts, in a festival experience that’s dramatically different from Cannes’ vast scale and hubbub, more intimate and relaxed and accessible for film lovers who want to gorge on many of the year’s best new releases as possible, Maregiano said. 

There’s no endless chase for hot tickets, and the festival venues are close by each other, simplifying the move between them. Even better for Take2Film participants, traveling with fellow cinephiles brings a chance to connect and debate about those films in a truly human way.

“By going to Venice in the group, we’re allowed to have that space to really share our emotion and to understand why we pursued that film,” Maregiano said. “We learn. I like that.”

Once again, attendees will have access to a special pre-festival screening of two classic films about Venice. Last year, that included a documentary about the lagoon, and a restored print of an older black-and-white film set in the city. 

Take2Film also will again offer a tour of notable Venice film locations, which have ranged over the decades from (of course) Death in Venice to Casino Royal and The Talented Mr. Ripley. 

“The city is like a movie set, its history, the age of it,” Maregiano said. “You can imagine so many things with these beautiful buildings.” 

This year, the festival will play alongside the Biennale Arte 2026, the vast biannual celebration of the global art scene that plays out over six months and multiple locations around Venice and runs through November. 

In 2025, when the Biennale's architecture-focused sibling was playing, Maregiano organized a stirring side trip for those who wanted to “understand how things work,” and perhaps spice their movie-going with other cultural pursuits. The opportunities this year for a cultural adventure will be further magnified by the Biennale Arte’s two main pavilions and more than 100 national showcases.   

Maregiano is also planning a trip to a new art gallery opened by a young French woman, featuring cocktails and drawings of visitors. 

“She has a boat, so maybe a little boat trip might be something we can do,” Maregiano said. 

The Lyon-based Maregiano is a creative polymath whose background includes film directing, 10 years of conservatory training as a flautist, and most recently, three years learning to be a French chef. She will use that latter background to develop special dining adventures across Venice for Take2Film participants, inspired by the bistronomie trend taking hold among up-and-coming chefs in culinary capital Lyon. 

“I wanted to try to go on the side of the mainstream restaurants,” Maregiano said, explaining her thinking when planning this year’s special dining opportunities. “Maybe we’ll focus on something more traditional and family(-style) food, which we haven't done yet. I wanted to offer them something different.”

But it’s crucial to remember that Take2Film trips allow participants the chance to create their own unique experience, Maregiano said. Some will watch three or four films a day. Others will bop around the city as much as they bop along the Lido. 

As Rachel, one of the 2025 participants, put it, “What I'm really gonna bring back with me is that I want to come back. Maybe when I come back, I will average one film a day. Many people average 5 films a day. This (experience), differing from Cannes, brought me to Venice.” 

That ability to construct a bespoke experience, while sharing it with other cinephiles, is central to Venice. 

“Some of the people want to focus only about film,” Maregiano said. “You decide what you want to do. Every day you try to find your tickets. If you can’t find it, I’ll try to make it happen.” 

Maregiano is also a big fan of the serendipities of wandering through a beautiful place, as happened with the group last year on one sortie. As part of last year’s architecture tour, the group stumbled across a beautiful garden with a lovely tree that would subsequently be their quiet gathering spot for conversations, meals and more. 

“We got lost and suddenly, you’re in front of a giant tree,” Maregiano said. “It was great.”

One early morning, she went looking for coffee and “a little sunrise,” and ended up by the canal-side barns where the city’s famed gondolas are built and repaired. 

“I was feeling like I live here in Venice,” Maregiano said. “Just hearing the people talking. I don’t speak Italian, but it doesn’t matter. It’s about being part of it.”  

David Bloom is a Santa Monica, Calif.-based writer, podcaster, speaker, and consultant. He is a senior contributor to Forbes and co-founder of the Next TMT newsletter and Next TMT Talks podcast.