Support Jeffrey Wells' Venice Film Festival Journey

I'm Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere, and once again I'm passing the GoFundMe hat to cover film festival expenses -- the 2025 Venice Film Festival primarily, but also the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

4.4.25 update: I've lost my limo job and need to pass the hat again. Just a little more. There...I've said it. Humiliating but true.

Undisciplined or loose-shoe as this may sound, I realized last night that despite HE's recent GoFundMe campaign having raised enough dough to cover travel and lodging at both the 2025 Cannes and Venice Film Festivals*, I'm still short of a steady footing given two "uh-ohs" that recently happened:

(a) pressing, unforeseen expenses related to a Santa Barbara Film Festival rental-car scraper (no one's business but my own) that occured in February and...

(b) losing my limo-driving job two weeks ago, which I didn't want to mention because whining about misfortune is a very un-Lee Marvin-ish thing to do.

And yet I couldn't sleep last night (I had to pop an Ambien) so I guess I have to mention it. A bear is growling outside my door. When your regular work income evaporates, it doesn't feel right or safe to be galavanting around Europe twice within a four-month period.

If I could cancel my Cannes air fare for a refund, I would do so but I didn't purchase that kind of ticket. Plus I don't want to leave Jordan Ruimy in the lurch. I'm searching for a fresh gig as we speak, but as I tossed and turned last night I imagined that it couldn't hurt to jettison what's left of my pride and try to reinvigorate the GoFund Me.

So, yes, this is it...HE is asking for a follow-up GoFundMe booster. Just a bit more to steady the ship. My sense of shame went out the window a long time ago when my advertising vaporized.

Those who may wish to donate anonymously are requested to do so via my Venmo account -- @gruver56

Perhaps a few regular readers who didn't contribute before could pitch in? Perhaps those whom I had wished cancer upon (two or three guys at the most) but are completely healthy and tumor-free...?

I'm not looking for a windfall. Just a few hundred more. Okay, a grand or two.

The truth is that enough was previously raised to cover both festivals but not much more, and after I was cut loose by the limo company two weeks ago, the cautious, practical-minded guy who lives in my chest was saying "cool your jets...it's wiser right now to spend less by forgetting about Cannes and just do Venice and focus on finding a new job."

But I'd accepted donations with the understanding that Cannes was part of the package, and it's bad faith and bad for the brand, obviously, to say "help me with Cannes" and then blow it off out of monetary anxiety.

An especially generous friend-of-HE has donated twice to help with Cannes. I'm honor-bound to fly to the Cote d'Azur for the sake of this guy's generosity alone.

Whatever you think a trip might cost, always double your projection and nine times out of ten it'll cost even more.

* I've bought the RT plane tickets (JFK-to-Nice and back, JFK to Milan and back). And I've paid for the Venice pad ($2100), and I'll be splitting the Cannes rent ($2500) with Ruimy.

Inital Mid-March pitch: I'll need around $7K to cover both festivals, or $3.5K each. The Cannes festival happens in mid-May, and the Venice gathering starts in late August. The dough is for air fare, apartment rental, local transportation, bare-bones groceries, occasional cappuccinos, etc.

Last year's request for Cannes expenses worked out quite nicely. It was actually heartening. Remember that I'm not paywalling any posts these days. HE is totally free and wide-open. I just need to cover these two vitally important festivals.

Those who may wish to donate anonymously are requested to do so via my Venmo acount -- @gruver56

For thirty odd years I covered my Cannes expenses through HE ad dollars, but the ad situation went south three or four years ago due to wokester persecution and cancellation. So I'm once again begging for assistance. My hat is out and I have no shame.

Thanks for your gracious help if you're able to part with $25 or $50 or whatever. If not, no sweat. And if I don't make my goal of $7000 and manage to only raise half that, I'll blow Cannes off and just do Venice. Thanks either way. My life is in your hands.

For me tapping out HE stories is, well, everything and then some. I don't know how to do anything else, and, as Vincent Hanna once famously said, "I don't much want to."