VENICE — Armani Beauty is back in Venice, cementing its role in the city as official beauty sponsor of the city’s international Film Festival for the ninth year.
Reflecting the late Giorgio Armani’s interest in films, success in dressing A-listers and providing costume designs for more than 100 movies, from “American Gigolo” to “The Untouchables,” the Armani Cinema Club is also returning this year, running from Tuesday to Sunday. As a meeting point, it will allow opportunities for friends of the house and the creative community to exchange ideas and perspectives.
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For the fifth year in a row, the brand will present the Audience Award — Armani Beauty, Venezia Spotlight. Venezia Spotlight is the festival’s competitive section dedicated to works that showcase emerging trends and demonstrate creative originality and innovation. This award celebrates the best picture in Venezia Spotlight, judged by spectators.
On Thursday night, Armani Beauty will hold a dinner at the Royal Gardens a few steps from St. Mark’s Square, with this year’s ambassadors and friends of the house, including Jonathan Bailey, Kendall Jenner, Vittoria Ceretti, Nicholas Galitzine, Sydney Sweeney, Madisin Rian, Carlos Sainz and J Balvin.
On Saturday at the Armani Cinema Club, Armani Beauty will celebrate the launch of the latest masculine Giorgio Armani eau de parfum, I Will, with a private screening of the fragrance’s campaign film directed by Academy Award nominee Todd Field. The scent’s ambassador, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Bailey, will be in attendance.
Armani Beauty keeps reinforcing partnerships with film festivals around the globe, from the Berlinale Film Festival to the BAFTA, the San Sebastian and the Melbourne Film Festivals.
Here, Richard Pinabel, global brand president of Armani Beauty at licensee L’Oréal, discusses how the experience in Venice has changed over the years, how Venice and the festival are much more than glamour, and how actors have stories of their own to tell, while also revealing his dream project.
WWD: Armani Beauty is clearly leaving a mark as part of the Venice Film Festival. How has the sponsorship evolved over the years — also in alignment with the festival’s own evolution?
Richard Pinabel: Our relationship with the Venice International Film Festival has always been rooted in a genuine and long-standing connection between Mr. Armani and cinema. Armani Beauty became the main sponsor of the festival in 2018, but what matters is how that relationship has grown since.
In the beginning, our role was naturally centered around the red carpet and the extraordinary visibility of Venice. Over time it has become much more dimensional. Today we are not only celebrating the people already defining cinema, but creating platforms for new voices, involving audiences more directly, and exploring the personal relationship our ambassadors have with film through initiatives such as Armani Cinema Club.
That evolution reflects what has happened to cinema itself. The conversation around a film no longer begins and ends inside the theater. Audiences experience Venice in real time, globally, through talent, social media, fashion, beauty and culture. The festival remains one of the great institutions of cinema, but the way people participate in it has expanded enormously.
Our role has evolved with that. The ambition is not simply to be visible at Venice, but to contribute to the culture around cinema in a way that feels authentic to Armani.
WWD: What are you most proud of?
R.P.: I am most proud that, as the partnership has become bigger, it has also become more meaningful.
Cinema was one of Mr. Armani’s great passions, so there is a responsibility that comes with putting the Armani name alongside an institution like Venice. It cannot simply be branding. It has to add something.
I believe our efforts are reflecting this commitment more and more, whether through supporting filmmakers in Venezia Spotlight, giving audiences a voice through the Armani Beauty Audience Award, or using our ambassadors to open up conversations about the films and filmmakers that have shaped them.
There is glamour, of course — Venice should have glamour, but there is substance behind it. I am very proud of that balance.
WWD: What is your dream project in regard to the festival and the sponsorship?
R.P.: Venice has this extraordinary ability to bring together the history of cinema and its future in one single place, and to build a bridge between established actors, directors, a new generation of filmmakers, writers, and creative talents who are only beginning to define their voice. I would love to extend this bridge to the professionals who work behind the scenes yet contribute so much to the magic of cinema: our makeup artists. They are essential in creating the characters that make us dream and inspire us, and my dream would be for Armani Beauty to celebrate this dimension of cinema and make it shine far beyond Venice.
WWD: How did the Armani Cinema Club begin?
R.P.: The Armani Cinema Club grew from a very simple idea: cinema has always been part of the cultural language of Armani, so rather than simply celebrating cinema from the outside, we wanted to understand it through the people who make it.
Actors are asked constantly about what they are wearing, what they are promoting or what project comes next. The Armani Cinema Club changes the conversation. It asks them what they watch, what has moved them, which performances stayed with them and which filmmakers have shaped the way they think.
That distinction is important. Our ambassadors are not simply faces of Armani Beauty; they are creative people with references, obsessions and histories of their own. By bringing together the largest cast of talent we have ever had in Venice to celebrate cinema, the Cinema Club allows us to reveal more of that person which, in many ways, goes back to the same philosophy that informs Armani Beauty itself: reveal, never transform.
WWD: In general, how do you choose the ambassadors?
R.P.: We never begin with reach. We begin with the person.
Of course, talent and global relevance matter, but what is most important is that there is a natural alignment with the Armani world. Mr. Armani had an extraordinary ability to recognize something in someone before it became obvious to everybody else. That instinct is important to preserve. We are looking for individuality, integrity and people who are completely themselves.
They do not all need to look alike or come from the same world. In fact, they shouldn’t. Our community now spans film, music, fashion and sport, different generations and different cultures. What connects them is presence. There is something about them that feels distinctive without being forced.
And the relationship has to be believable. Consumers recognize very quickly when an ambassador is simply wearing a brand and when there is a genuine connection between the person and what that brand represents.
WWD: What is a key, significant memory of this experience over the years?
R.P.: There are so many, because Venice has an atmosphere that is difficult to reproduce anywhere else. You have this combination of extraordinary cinema, immense history, and complete unpredictability, everyone is moving through the same small city by boat, crossing paths between screenings and premieres.
What stays with me most is seeing the Armani community together here. People from completely different disciplines and parts of the world suddenly become one family for a few days. There is something very emotional about seeing that against the backdrop of a festival that meant so much to Mr. Armani.
WWD: Could you please expand on the Audience Award — Armani Beauty, Venezia Spotlight. Why have you initiated this?
R.P.: The Armani Beauty Audience Award is particularly meaningful because it places the audience at the center of the conversation.
Venezia Spotlight celebrates films distinguished by originality and innovation in the way they engage with audiences. The people attending the official screenings are invited to vote, and the film receiving the highest average score receives the Armani Beauty Audience Award.
For us, supporting this award is about helping champion distinctive filmmaking and emerging cinematic voices, but also recognizing something fundamental about cinema: ultimately, it is an exchange between the filmmaker and the audience.
That democratic element is very important. Alongside celebrating established excellence at Venice, we want our partnership to help create visibility for stories and filmmakers audiences genuinely connect with.