Which city hosts the oldest continuously running film festival?

Venice, founded in 1932 - and it began as a fascist project. Mussolini's government created it partly as cultural prestige and partly to boost tourism at the Lido, and the top prize in the late 1930s was the Mussolini Cup.

Cannes exists because of it. In 1938 the jury, under political pressure, split the top award between a German and an Italian film, and French and British delegations walked out and resolved to found a rival festival. Cannes was scheduled for September 1939 and cancelled when Germany invaded Poland; it finally happened in 1946.

Venice screens on the Lido, the island Thomas Mann used for Death in Venice, and its Golden Lion is one of the three most prestigious festival prizes alongside Cannes and Berlin. Berlin's own origin is equally political - it was founded in 1951 in the western sector as a showcase of the free world, deliberately sited where East Berliners could attend, which they did in large numbers until the Wall went up.