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Venice Film Festival Not Expected To Get UK Quarantine Dispensation; Brits Get Creative In Bid Not To Miss Anticipated Lineup

The Venice Film Festival (September 1 – 11) is not expected to offer a quarantine dispensation for vaccinated UK guests, according to festival sources.

The Cannes Film Festival was able to get a special dispensation earlier this summer which waived the quarantine for vaccinated UK attendees.

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Vaccinated UK guests heading to the Lido will need to either quarantine for five days on arrival or stay only five days in total at the festival, per a national rule that allows short business trips from certain countries without the need to quarantine.

The five-day allowance means that UK-based talent supporting one movie should be able to get to the festival without too much problem.

However, the rule poses a bigger headache for those Brits attending for more than one film. Multiple Brit journalists we have spoken to are planning to arrive five days early and will quarantine on the Lido. One festival head based in the UK told us they would travel to France on work ahead of the festival in the hope that doing so would eliminate the need to quarantine in Italy. Another UK-based fest exec is planning a trip around Europe which should beat the need to hole up in a Lido hotel. This is a lineup that many don’t want to miss.

The boss of a leading UK PR firm lamented: “Obviously, having to take everyone five days early to quarantine incurs additional costs. We might, for example, take some people in five day shifts, but that’s not going to work for every member of the team. It’s a massive pain, particularly after last year’s Venice, which was such a pleasure.”

Italy will update its travel rules on August 30 but most will have made their plans by then.

As for on the ground protocols, the festival will once again mandate 50% capacity in theaters and other measures are expected.

Venice President Roberto Cicutto said last month that he hopes the festival “could be more relaxed” with its Covid protocols this year but acknowledged that the current restrictions don’t reflect that.

The Green Pass should allow us to be safer,” he commented, “What we are experiencing now is a great interest and desire to be here. There will be an increased presence from press. We hope we will have a large presence of delegations for the films.”

Italy has said it will accept COVID-19 certificates from five countries outside the EU, including the U.S. and UK Starting from August 6, Italy will make the EU Green Pass and other COVID passes mandatory for entry into restaurants, movie theaters and other cultural venues.

Travelers from countries including Brazil and India are still not able to enter Italy.

Venice will open with Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers. Big ticket movies will include Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana drama Spencer, Ridley Scott’s medieval epic The Last Duel, Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God.

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