Nineteen restored films at the Lido, and a 1967 thriller opens the Mostra one day early

This newspaper has already reported on the choice to open the 83rd Venice Mostra with a restored film, on August 28th. Today’s angle is different: not the event, but the chain that makes it possible and who pays for it.

On Tuesday, September 1st, 2026, in the Sala Darsena, the Mostra screens «Col cuore in gola» by Tinto Brass, a 1967 thriller with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Ewa Aulin. It is the world premiere of the 4K restored version produced by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale with the support of Netflix. The film falls under the Venezia Classici section and was chosen for the pre-opening, one day before the official ceremony. The news currently comes from a single source, the official Biennale program reported by iCrewPlay Cinema: no independent confirmation available.

A number that shows how much the archive weighs

The official selection of the edition includes, alongside the 88 feature films and 18 short films, 19 restored films, according to the program presentation reported by Sky TG24. Nineteen recovered titles are a block that, in terms of screenings and days, weighs as much as a competitive section: restoration is not a decorative supplement to the calendar, it is a structural part of what a festival shows.

The composition of the entity behind this restoration deserves attention. The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale is a public conservation institution; Netflix, in the available excerpts, appears as a supporter of the operation. This is a recurring arrangement in the sector: technical expertise and ownership of the copies rest with the public archive, part of the expenditure comes from a private operator that has its own interest in the distribution of the catalogue. We do not know, and therefore do not report, the terms of that support: amount, duration, any exploitation rights over the restored version.

What choosing a restoration for the pre-opening entails

Placing a 1967 film on the day preceding the ceremony means giving it an audience of accredited guests and press that the rest of the Classici section rarely gathers all at once. The cost of this choice is symmetrical: the pre-opening falls outside the framework of the official evening, so the title gains in professional visibility and loses in general-audience visibility.

Verona, the season is announced the day before

On August 31st, at 11 a.m., at via Teatro Ristori 7 in Verona, the press conference presenting the 2026/2027 artistic season of the Teatro Ristori is held. The appointment appears in the #AccadeOggi agenda of the Redazione ANSA, the only available source: no independent confirmation, and no known program content prior to the announcement.

On the Ristori’s season, this newspaper does not anticipate anything: the available material contains the date, the time and the address, not the titles, not the names of the artists, not the ticket sales calendar. The only element we can record is the sequence of the two appointments: the Verona announcement falls the day before the Venice pre-opening, and as to why that placement was chosen we have no source available.

What we do not know

We do not know the complete list of this year’s nineteen restorations, nor which archives have produced them. We do not know the economic terms of Netflix’s support for the restoration of «Col cuore in gola». We do not know whether the pre-opening will be accessible to non-accredited members of the public.

The fixed fact is the calendar’s timing: the first screening of the 83rd Mostra is a film from fifty-nine years ago, scheduled for September 1st in the Sala Darsena.