The Venice Film Festival (28 August-7 September) kicks off imminently, and there’s a “business as usual” feeling attached this year, where some of the uncomfortable challenges and talking points of recent editions can be avoided. For one, the Hollywood actors who flock to the Lido for some of their own best photo opps of the year will be unimpeded by the SAG-AFTA strikes, although those have likely upset the films that would potentially be ready. Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix will be back for Joker: Folie à Deux, which there’s anticipation for, albeit far less than their first instalment, which, of course, grabbed a shock Golden Lion. And previous critical favourites like Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodóvar and Brady Corbet – not to mention actors such as George Clooney – will return to the scene of past triumphs. The nervousness over theatrical exhibition’s vitality (if it’s still not totally dissipated) and, of course, the pandemic years is no longer a question mark hanging over the festival.

Despite their more disparate line-ups, we should not discount the spoils of Toronto (5-15 September) and San Sebastián (20-28 September), presenting filmmakers like Joshua Oppenheimer and Gia Coppola, who might’ve expected Venice for their premiere. And, as ever, we hope for surprises and lesser-known filmmakers muscling themselves onto the scene and potentially besting the ones we’ve listed below.

It will be Cineuropa’s busiest month of the year for coverage, and we’ll gracefully guide you through the festival frenzy, like the best gondola on Venice’s waterways. Our recently relaunched Instagram page is a particularly good place to follow along.

To paraphrase Damien Chazelle, speaking at last year’s festival, where he was jury president, “Venice is a city that’s not quite real: you take a boat to the cinema.” That’s its special aura in a nutshell.

The Room Next Door [+lee también:
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This is the most highly anticipated new Almódovar for a while – principally, you could say, because it’s his first feature completely in English, after two fine shorts in The Human Voice and Strange Way of Life warmed him up. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, the imperious Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore reunite in late middle age as two writers who were once colleagues at the same magazine, and a labyrinthine backstory will surely be wrought. World-premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Conclave [+lee también:
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Berger continues his rise to the industry’s peak, following the awards-garlanded All Quiet on the Western Front [+lee también:
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entrevista: Edward Berger
ficha de la película], with this thriller, adapted from Robert Harris’s novel, which tracks a succession crisis at the Vatican. Shot in English on lush sets at Cinecittà, it looks to be a potential Oscar vehicle for Ralph Fiennes, who, as they say in industry parlance, is “due”. World-premiering at Telluride, followed by showings at Toronto and in competition at San Sebastián.

The Brutalist [+lee también:
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It doesn’t just sound vertiginously ambitious, this film; it’s also touted as being genuinely great. Following his successes there with Vox Lux and The Childhood of a Leader [+lee también:
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Queer [+lee también:
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Another ritzy literary adaptation showing at Venice, Queer finds Guadagnino reuniting with his Challengers [+lee también:
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Love [+lee también:
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This film was greeted as one of the fresher competition selections by Venice’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, giving some new auteurs a gateway into the A list, whilst snubbing some evergreens. In the third part in his “Sex, Love, Dreams” trilogy, after Sex [+lee también:
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April [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dea Kulumbegashvili
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Produced by one Luca Guadagnino after he was blown away by the director’s previous film, Beginning [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], awarding it San Sebastián’s Golden Shell, April reunites her with Ia Sukhitashvili, who plays an obstetrician ostracised by her local community after a newborn baby dies in her care. Reading descriptions, the expressionistic imagery and searing dramatic turns of her past work will be much in evidence again. World-premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Hard Truths [+lee también:
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Set to rekindle the spirit of his more abrasive 1990s works like Naked, this long-awaited return for Leigh finds the director back in the contemporary world after two period pieces. He is working with a primarily black cast for the first time: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, famed for her performance in the director’s Palme d’Or winner Secrets & Lies, is Pansy, a working-class woman suffering from a bevy of mental-health issues (when Leigh was quizzed by Vanity Fair last week about his suitability for this story, he passionately defended his case). Expect another tough but compassionate report on human strife. World-premiering at Toronto, followed by a competition showing at San Sebastián.

Glimmers [+lee también:
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And now for one of the lesser-known filmmakers on this list, who’s making up the domestic contingent in San Sebastián’s competition line-up. Alongside Carla Simón and Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Palomero heads a wave of new female voices enlivening Spanish cinema, and follows Schoolgirls [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] with a similarly sensitive domestic drama, where a middle-aged divorcée (Patricia López Arnaiz) makes visits to her unwell ex-husband (Antonio de la Torre) and finds her past resentments stirring again. World-premiering in competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Afternoons of Solitude [+lee también:
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entrevista: Albert Serra
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This writer won’t be at San Sebastián, but he is tensing his stomach already. Serra will bravely aestheticise the bloodsport of bullfighting in his first non-fiction feature, following its current Peruvian “star” Andrés Roca Rey backstage and while plying his trade in the ring across one day. Serra is pretty much current cinema’s own “art star” provocateur, less fazed by taste and controversy than his peers, so his long-take, durational approach will likely be as testing as the copious gore. World-premiering in competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Harvest [+lee también:
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entrevista: Athina Rachel Tsangari
ficha de la película] - Athina Rachel Tsangari (UK/Germany/Greece/France/USA)

An especially interesting aspect of this film is the involvement of Sixteen Films, Ken Loach’s production company for most of this century. With the great British social-realist stalwart likely bowing out of filmmaking for now, a new generation of politically committed cinema must be sought, and Harvest, Greek director Tsangari’s first feature in nine years, could be the answer, adapting Jim Crace’s Booker Prize-shortlisted 2013 novel to trace the decline of a farming community in medieval England. US indie cinematographer Sean Price Williams will surely provide atmospheric and gritty visuals, and not Olde England clichés. World-premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival.