Venice · Film

Venice Film Festival

The oldest film festival in the world, on a beach island reached by boat

Late August to early September Public tickets from about 15 to 30 euros

Founded in 1932, held on the Lido across the lagoon, and in recent years the most reliable launchpad for films that go on to win awards elsewhere. Unlike Cannes, a meaningful number of tickets are sold to the public.

The setting does a lot of work: a rationalist cinema palace from the 1930s, a beach, and a vaporetto ride back to the city at two in the morning.

Venice

While you are in Venice

LandmarkIcon

Venice · Castello

Biennale Giardini and Arsenale

National pavilions in a park and a rope factory the length of a runway, every year since 1895

€€€€ Opening weeks in spring

Museum

Venice · Dorsoduro

Punta della Dogana

The old customs house at the tip of the island, stripped back by Tadao Ando

€€€€ Late afternoon

Museum

Venice · Dorsoduro

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

An unfinished palace on the Grand Canal, holding the collection she assembled in one extraordinary decade

€€€€ First thing; the rooms are small and fill quickly

Film

More film festivals

Jan / Feb

Rotterdam · Film

International Film Festival Rotterdam

The counterweight to the glamour festivals: first and second features, no red carpet

Feb

Berlin · Film

Berlinale

The only major film festival that sells most of its seats to the public

May

Cannes · Film

Festival de Cannes

The most important film festival in the world, and almost entirely closed to the public