Movie stars mask up at the Venice Film Festival amid the coronavirus pandemic

The usually packed and highly anticipated Venice Film Festival looks very different this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The world’s oldest film festival opened Wednesday under a slew of COVID-prevention protocols, with the few A-list celebrities making the trip wearing face masks and the general public largely absent.

Paparazzi, who in past years rented boats to chase stars as they crossed the lagoon to the Lido, filmed the opening arrivals from special, socially distanced spots along the red carpet. Masked guards took temperatures at nearly every turn, and no jostling, crowding or cramming was allowed.

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It’s all part of the measures imposed by Venice organizers to try to safely host the first major in-person festival of the COVID-19 era when others canceled or went online. That the festival is happening at all is significant, given Italy was the first country in the West to be hit hard by the virus.

But Italy also largely brought infections under control with a rigid lockdown and continued vigilance — measures that festival organizers have embraced and enhanced.

“We feel the responsibility [of] being the first one. We know the festival of Venice will be a sort of test for everybody,” said festival director Alberto Barbera. “We worked a lot on strict plans of safety measures to ensure that everybody who attended the festival would be safe until the end. And if it works like we hope, everybody can learn from our experience.”

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This year, a huge wall was erected to block their view and dissuade them from gathering, though some dedicated fans crowded at the entrances and peeked through the fencing to try to catch a glimpse of Matt Dillon or Tilda Swinton.

Swinton, who was awarded a lifetime achievement Golden Lion on Wednesday, gave them a treat for their persistence, sporting a gilded Venetian-style masquerade mask.

The pandemic hit the film industry hard, forcing the closure of theaters as well as the cancellation of production on sets around the globe. Venice has tried to offer the industry a source of hope in a rebirth, but the absence of Hollywood films has deprived the festival of much of its star power and deal-making pull.

Jury president actress Cate Blanchett said it was “miraculous” that the festival came off at all.

But for veteran Venice festival-goers, the new restrictions created unprecedented hurdles that threatened to shut them out.

Maria Luisa Biffis, who lives part-time in Venice, said for years she would come to the festival on the first day to pick up the program and scope out which films she wanted to see over the following 10 days. She’d then come back to buy tickets and queue on the day of the screening to get in.

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“Now you can only buy tickets online,” Biffis said as she walked away from the help desk after realizing she'd been shut out. “I’m on vacation, and I don’t have a computer.”

In addition, seating is limited to ensure at least every two or three seats are vacant, meaning some films have already sold out, particularly those that are screening in the two new sought-after open-air venues.

“I would have liked to have seen the new Segre one,” Biffis said, referring to the pre-opening film “Molecules” by Italian director Andrea Segre. “I’ll see if there’s anything else I can get.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.