After 10 days and dozens of red carpet premieres, the 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival came to a close Saturday. While cinema is focused on the qualitative, a quantitative look can tell a story of its own. There are, after all, plenty of fascinating figures — beyond the celebrity kind — to be found on the Lido.
Here’s a look at this year’s Venice Film Festival, by the numbers.
4,580: Films submitted for consideration
That figure includes 1,936 feature films, which cost 200 euros ($234) apiece to submit. To be eligible for selection, a film must have been completed after Sept. 7, 2024, and must be making its world premiere at Venice. The festival decides what section a selected film goes in.
21: Films played in the main competition
It amounts to slightly over 1% of the feature films submitted. The 21 movies were the ones eligible for awards like the Golden Lion, which was won this year by Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Bother.” There were also 30 films making their world premieres at Venice, but out of competition, like Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt.” Nineteen films played in the Horizons (Orizzonti) sidebar, which has its own awards. The Venice Classics sidebar featured 18 restorations.
7: Members of the jury
Led by American director Alexander Payne, the jury included French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian director Maura Delpero, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof (he lives in exile in Germany), Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres and Chinese actor Zhao Tao. They decide the winners among the main competition.
22: Minutes of the longest standing ovation
The applause meter at film festivals is notoriously faulty, calibrated differently outlet by outlet, but it was clear that the ovation for “The Voice of Hind Rajab” was record-breaking and definitely over 20 minutes. Variety reported 22 and BBC had it at 23. Kaouther Ben Hania’s movie easily surpassed last year’s Golden Lion winner, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” which had people on their feet for 18 minutes.
1932: Year the film festival was founded
Doing the math, that’s definitely more than 82 years ago. The festival has been suspended or periodically taken different forms over the years, including during World War II — though it did go forward in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
65: Countries represented
Selections hailed from far and wide, from the U.S., France and, of course, Italy, to Ecuador, Slovakia and Taipei.
21-59: Film durations, in minutes, that are ineligible
There’s space for short films — 20 minutes and under — and feature films — longer than 60 minutes — but woe betide the filmmaker who makes anything in between.
156: Longest runtime, in minutes, of films in competition
That distinction belongs to Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” an adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s bestselling book of the same name, in which Jude Law transforms into Vladimir Putin.
90: Shortest runtime, in minutes, of films in competition
The longest ovation went to the shortest film in competition, “The Voice of Hind Rajab.” Ben Hania’s film combines real audio from Hind Rajab, the Palestinian 6-year-old girl who was found dead days after her desperate call for rescue in Gaza, with actors portraying volunteers at the Red Crescent, where the movie is set.
10,000: Estimated number of people who participated in a Gaza anti-war march
Israel’s war in Gaza reverberated through the festival, with high-profile calls to disinvite Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot over the war and questions to filmmakers and actors about an indie film company’s funding ties to the Israeli military. The Aug. 30 march in Venice aimed to turn the spotlight from the stars to the war, and organizers estimate that over 10,000 people turned out.
2: Lifetime achievement awards presented
Those Golden Lions went to Kim Novak, the 92-year-old legendary actor who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” and Werner Herzog, the prolific 83-year-old German filmmaker whose works range from lauded documentaries like “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” to the Nicolas Cage-starrer “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.” (He also acts, as viewers of “The Mandalorian” can attest.)
1992: Year Francis Ford Coppola received his own lifetime achievement award
Coppola was in Venice to present the award to Herzog, and also as the subject of the documentary “MEGADOC,” Mike Figgis’ film about the making of “Megalopolis.” Daughter, Sofia Coppola, also had a film at the festival: “Marc by Sofia,” about fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
5,370: Cost, in dollars, of a one-night stay during the festival at the Hotel Cipriani
The Belmond hotel is where George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Julia Roberts and more stars stayed during the festival. On a separate island from the Lido, its location offers celebrities a tad more privacy.
34: Cost, in euros, of the Buonanotte cocktail
The cocktail was invented by bartender Walter Bolzonella with Clooney, at the Cipriani’s Bar Gabbiano. Described on the menu as “fresh, fruity, low alcohol,” it’s made with vodka, lime, ginger, cucumber and cranberry. (For the record, it’s not more expensive than the hotel’s other signature cocktails.)
2:3:1: Ratio of Campari to prosecco to soda water for a Campari spritz
That’s the recipe Italian spirits maker Campari advises when it comes to the simple, refreshing cocktail that’s a staple of the Venice Film Festival. Usually selling for 4 euros, the spritzes are ubiquitous around the festival’s HQ.
4.5: Kilometers between the Piazza San Marco and the Palazzo del Cinema
The Venice Film Festival doesn’t take place in the heart of the city, which would be the Piazza San Marco. Instead, it’s on the Lido, a barrier island across the Venetian Lagoon. The Palazzo del Cinema, featuring three movie theaters, is the main headquarters of the festival. It takes 32 minutes to make the journey, by vaporetto, the public water bus. (For good measure, pun somewhat intended, 4.5 kilometers is just under 3 miles.)
71: Lowest depth, in feet, of the Venetian Lagoon
Over the decades, few tableaux are as glamorous as movies stars arriving, stylishly disheveled, by launch to the festival. Ferried to and from the Lido, celebrities, journalists and members of the public with passes cross the Venetian Lagoon. Should they fall overboard, they would contend with a depth of up to 71 feet (21 meters).
1,032: Seats in the Sala Grande
The historic theater is home to the biggest screenings at the festival, as well as the awards ceremonies. It includes four additional spaces for people in wheelchairs.
44: Suggested font size of subtitles
Every film shown at Venice has to have subtitles burned in: Non-Italian-language movies must have Italian subtitles, and Italian-language movies must have English subtitles. (All films are shown with English subtitles projected off-screen.) The festival’s detailed subtitling guidelines suggest opting for white on-screen subtitles. And, yes, the festival has a preferred font. Much like the Microsoft Office of yore, it’s Arial.
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Sen reported from New York.
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