Venice Film Festival insists the show must go on in September

The Venice Film Festival will go on as scheduled this fall, the region’s governor confirmed on Sunday.

Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto, said the festival will go on as planned from Sept. 2 to 12 as the spread of the novel coronavirus slows in the country.

Established in 1932, Venice is the world’s longest-running film festival. The Cannes Film Festival was forced to postpone in May because of the global pandemic. The Venice Architecture Biennale, scheduled for Aug. 29-Nov. 29, was recently postponed to May 2021.

Italy plans to lift the travel ban in the country beginning June 3 and will allow travelers from countries within the European Union to enter without going into quarantine. The country logged 119 new deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday, bringing the death toll in Italy to 32,735, the third-highest total in the world following the U.S. and U.K.

Last year, Warner Bros’. “Joker,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, won the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize. Venice announced in January that Cate Blanchett will preside over this year’s festival jury.