Venice film festival turns to political epics as attention spans shrink

The Venice film festival, opening this month on the Lido, is staking a claim for cinema's power to hold attention in an age of fractured media. According to the Guardian, the festival is delivering politically forthright epics from directors including Sergei Loznitsa and Alex Gibney, films that take on the European Union's crises with a directness that has become rare in mainstream culture.

The Guardian's commentary frames the festival as a deliberate counterweight to social media, which it says shrinks and distorts the EU's most urgent problems. Where platforms compress complex events into fragments, the Venice programme offers long-form, unflinching narratives that demand sustained viewing.

For a festival that has long served as a launchpad for award-season contenders, the emphasis on political engagement marks a notable shift. The selection suggests a curatorial conviction that audiences are ready for cinema that confronts rather than entertains.