23/07/2024 - Great returns, some confirmations and a few surprises, both in competition and out, in the varied line-up of this year’s Venice Film Festival

Many international media outlets had already predicted several titles that will participate in the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, which will take place from 28 August to 7 September. But artistic director Alberto Barbera has promised many more surprises during his press conference, and it is proving hard to disagree with him.

21 films are in Competition (2 fewer than last year), amongst which stands out the first feature shot entirely in English (between Madrid and New York) by Pedro Almodóvar, The Room Next Door. Starring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and John Turturro, the film by the Spanish director (in Venice for the third time, after Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Parallel Mothers) tells the story of the rift between a mother, a war correspondent, and her daughter.

Three French films are in competition, all by directors selected by the festival for the first time: And Their Children After Them by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, a coming of age story that confirms the promising director twins; The Quiet Son, co-directed by the sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin, starring Vincent Lindon as a single father with a son fascinated by right-wing extremists; Three Friends by Emmanuel Mouret, which tells the story of the romantic relationships that unfold between three couples.

There are also Italian films: Gianni Amelio returns to Venice (his eighth time in competition, winner of the Golden Lion in 1998 for The Way We Laughed and Silver Lion for Best Director in 1994 for Lamerica) with Battlefield, about the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918-19 which caused millions of deaths; Maura Delpero sets Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride, her second feature after the Locarno-prized Maternal, in a village in the Dolomites at the end of the Second World War, and Sicilian Letters by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (in Venice for the first time after his films presented at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, Salvo and Sicilian Ghost Story), which comically follows a fugitive mafia boss. Luca Guadagnino will also be present after his Silver Lion for Best Director for Bones and All, with Queer, almost entirely shot at Cinecittà, adapted from William Burroughs and starring Daniel Craig. The fifth and final Italian film is Diva Futura by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (noticed for her debut film Settembre) about Riccardo Schicchi, who launched porn cinema in Italy.

Athina Rachel Tsangari returns, after her selection in 2010 with Attenberg, with her fourth feature Harvest, shot in 16mm film and set in England at the end of the 16th century, starring Caleb Landry Jones. From Norway, Love by Dag Johan Haugerud (the third part of his trilogy that started with Sex, winner of several awards this year in the Panorama section in Berlin, while the release date of the second chapter, Dreams, is still to be confirmed) is an analysis of the sexual behaviours standing in contrast with social norms. Highly anticipated by cinephiles is April by Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili, who won in San Sebastián in 2020 with her first feature Beginning, which also received the 2020 Cannes label.

12 years after his latest film On the Road, and 23 after his latest Venice selection with Behind the Sun, Walter Salles returns with I’m Still Here, the true story of the search for the wife of a socialist deputy who disappeared during the 1970s dictatorship. Venice regular Pablo Larrain (recently in competition with Jackie and Spencer) returns with his latest woman’s portrait Maria, about Maria Callas' golden exile in Paris, starring Angelina Jolie. From Argentina, the original voice of Luis Ortega (selected in Un Certain Regard in Cannes with his debut El Ángel) tells the story of a jockey in Kill the Jockey. From Asia comes Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, who will present Youth (Homecoming), the last volume in his documentary trilogy that began with Youth (Spring), and was continued by Youth (Hard Times); as well as Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua with Stranger Eyes, the follow-up to his Locarno Golden Leopard winner A Land Imagined.

US actor-director Brady Corbet visits the Lido for the third time, with his third feature, USA-UK-Hungary co-production The Brutalist. No details were shared about the high anticipated Joker: Folie à deux by Todd Phillips and starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, while other films from the US include the erotic thriller Babygirl, an A24 production starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickison, from Dutch director Halina Reijn (Instinct), and the political indie thriller about white supremacists in 1980s USA titled The Order, from Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel.

We already know that the festival will open with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by Tim Burton (leer noticia), while Pupi Avati will close the Mostra with the gothic film L'orto americano. Some films in the non-fiction out-of-competition slate reflect on current wars: Why War by Amos Gitai mixes fiction and non-fiction, starting from Freud and Einstein; young Russian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova has shot Russians at War on the front, while Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba proposes Songs of Slow Burning Earth. Amongst the out-of-competition fiction films are Maldoror by Belgian filmmaker Fabrice du Welz about the terrible case of the Marcinelle monster; French master Claude Lelouch in Venice for the first time with Finalement; Venice regular Harmony Korine with Baby Invasion; Wolfs by Jon Watts starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; cult Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns with Cloud, and, as a last-minute gift, Takeshi Kitano with a surprising Broken Rage.

To note finally are the series Families Like Ours [+see also:
series review
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
series profile] by Thomas Vinterberg in which Denmark is submerged under water, Los años nuevos, [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile] a new work from Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, M - Il figlio del secolo [+see also:
trailer
interview: Joe Wright
series profile] from British filmmaker Joe Wright starring Luca Marinelli about the birth and development of fascism in Italy, and Alfonso Cuarón's UK-US co-production Disclaimer [+see also:
series review
series profile], starring Cate Blanchett.

The Orizzonti and Orizzonti Extra films have also been unveiled (read news).

The films selected:

Competition

The Room Next Door - Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
Battlefield - Gianni Amelio (Italy)
And Their Children After Them - Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma (France)
The Brutalist - Brady Corbet (UK)
The Quiet Son - Delphine & Muriel Coulin (France)
Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride - Maura Delpero (Italy/France/Belgium)
Sicilian Letters - Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza (Italy/France)
Queer - Luca Guadagnino (Italy/USA)
Love - Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
April - Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia/France/Italy)
The Order - Justin Kurzel (Canada)
Maria - Pablo Larraín (Italy/Germany/USA)
Three Friends - Emmanuel Mouret (France)
Kill the Jockey - Luis Ortega (Argentina/Mexico/Spain/Denmark/USA)
Joker: Folie à deux - Todd Phillips (USA)
Babygirl - Halina Reijn (USA/Netherlands)
I'm Still Here - Walter Salles (Brazil/France)
Diva futura - Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (Italy)
Harvest - Athina Rachel Tsangari (UK/Germany/Greece/France/USA)
Youth (Homecoming) - Wang Bing (France/Luxembourg/Netherlands/China)
Stranger Eyes - Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore/Taiwan/France/USA)

Out of Competition - Fiction

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Tim Burton (USA) (opening film)
Se posso permettermi (Capitolo II) - Marco Bellocchio (Italy) (short film)
Il tempo che ci vuole - Francesca Comencini (Italy/France)
Horizon: An American Saga (Chapter 1) - Kevin Costner (USA)
Horizon: An American Saga (Chapter 2) - Kevin Costner (USA)
Phantosmia - Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Maldoror - Fabrice du Welz (Belgium/France)
Broken Rage - Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Baby Invasion - Harmony Korine (USA)
Cloud - Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan)
Finalement - Claude Lelouch (France)
Allégorie citadine - Alice Rohrwacher & JR (France) (short film)
Wolfs - Jon Watts (USA)
L'orto americano - Pupi Avati (Italy) (closing film)

Out of Competition - Non-Fiction

Apocalypse in the Tropics - Petra Costa (Brazil/USA/Denmark)
Bestiari, erbari, lapidari - Massimo D'Anolfi & Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland)
Why War - Amos Gitai (France/Switzerland/Israel/Italy)
2073 - Asif Kapadia (UK)
One to One: John & Yoko - Kevin Macdonald & Sam Rice-Edwards (UK)
Separated - Errol Morris (USA)
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 - Göran Hugo Olsson (Sweden/Finland/Denmark)
Russians at War - Anastasia Trofimova (France/Canada)
TWST - Things We Said Today - Andrei Ujica (France/Romania)
Riefenstahl - Andres Veiel (Germany)
Songs of Slow Burning Earth - Olha Zhurba (Ukraine/Denmark/Sweden/France)

Out of Competition - Series

Disclaimer [+see also:
series review
series profile] - Alfonso Cuarón (UK/USA)
Los años nuevos [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile] - Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Spain)
Families Like Ours [+see also:
series review
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
series profile] - Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark/Sweden/France)
M - Il figlio del secolo [+see also:
trailer
interview: Joe Wright
series profile] - Joe Wright (Italy/France)

Out of Competition - Special Screenings

Leopardi. Il poeta dell'infinito - Sergio Rubini (Italy)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - Peter Weir (USA) (2003)
Beauty Is Not a Sin - Nicolas Winding Refn (Italy/Denmark) (short film)

Biennale College Cinema

The Fisherman - Zoey Martinson (Ghana)
January 2 - Zsófia Szilágyi (Hungary)
Honeymoon - Zhanna Ozirna (Ukraine)
My Birthday - Christian Filippi (Italy)

(Translated from Italian)