George Clooney received a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday and fielded questions from journalists about the industry's shifting relationship with film festivals. The actor attributed the reduced studio presence at Venice, Cannes and Berlin to the economics of contemporary Hollywood filmmaking.
"Studios are doing films that need a launchpad of a film festival less and less," Clooney said at a press conference. He traced the trend to at least the 1990s, citing his own work on the 1998 film "Out of Sight" as an early example of the shift.
Clooney attributed the change to the rising costs and type of films studios now produce. "The films that studios are making are hugely expensive," he said, noting that studios have moved away from original dramas like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "All the President's Men" toward franchise projects and intellectual property adaptations. He said studios consequently "don't really need this launchpad as much."
Clooney, who directed "Good Night, and Good Luck," which premiered at Venice in 2005, said he is not currently pursuing directing projects because of his family commitments. "I have two nine-year-old kids," he said. "In order for me to spend time with them, I can't direct."
He said directing a feature requires a year of continuous work, whereas acting in a film typically takes three months. The demands of his last project—a stage adaptation of "Good Night, and Good Luck" on Broadway—had already taken time away from his children's school year, he said.
