AceShowbiz - The Venice Film Festival will go ahead as planned in September, with organisers promising to defy the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

Major film, music, television, and sports events have all been either cancelled or postponed this year, due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus, with the Cannes Film Festival now postponed until an unspecified date.

However, although Italy has been one of the hardest hit countries by the virus, Roberto Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, the organisation that runs the Venetian festival, told Italian news agency ANSA on Monday, April 20 that it would not be postponed or cancelled.

Cicutto also denied plans mooted by Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux to collaborate on a joint event after the indefinite postponement of the French cinema extravaganza.

"With Cannes everything is possible," Ciucutto said. "But I find it disconcerting that Thierry Fremaux keeps saying he is continuing to examine the situation and does not say what he wants to do. We are going forward with our program...there is no dialogue."

The Venice chief said he believed Italian government officials would permit them to open "six or seven" movie theatres for specially held festival screenings.

Italy has been in lockdown since early March, with all cinemas and non-essential businesses closed as more than 23,000 have died from the disease, according to figures from America's Johns Hopkins Institute. The crisis has, however, resulted in the postponement of Venice's theatre and dance festivals.