The 82nd edition of Venice Film Festival (Biennale) was announced today and it will be a star-studded celebration of cinema on the Lido, which will run from August 27th through September 6th, with many a buzzy awards title in and out of the running for prizes.
Films In Competition include works by Kathryn Bigelow, Yorgos Lanthimos, Noah Baumbach, Guillermo del Toro, Mona Fastvold, Benny Safdie, Olivier Assayas, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, László Nemes, François Ozon, Pietro Marcello, Gianfranco Rosi and more.
Out of competition there will be new films from Sofia Coppola, Luca Guadagnino, Gus Van Sant, Laura Poitras, Charlie Kaufman, Werner Herzog, Julian Schnabel and many others.
Schnabel’s 150-minute film, In the Hand of Dante, arrives with quite a bit of controversy. Financiers pressured the director to cut the running time, but the movie will premiere in Venice, as Schnabel intended. Dante is based on Nick Tosches’s genre-blending, time-hopping novel and stars Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Al Pacino, John Malkovich and Martin Scorsese.
Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone return to the Biennale with Bugonia, co-starring Jesse Plemons, after world premiering the Oscar-winning gem, Poor Things, there in 2023 and winning the Golden Lion.
Guadagnino returns out-of-comp with After the Hunt, after premiering Queer in-comp last year. The film stars Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield. Noteworthy, this will be Roberts’ very first time on the Venice red carpet.
Pacino and Isaac make dual appearances in Venice films this year.
Pacino is also in the cast of Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire along with Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo and Cary Elwes.
And Isaac stars in Guillermo Del Toro’s much-anticipated version of Frankenstein, which co-stars Jacob Elordi as the monster and is a Netflix release.
Mona Fastvold is back, this time in the director’s seat, with another script-collab with her hubby Brady Corbet, The Testament of Ann Lee, which stars Amanda Seyfried and Thomasin McKenzie and is a musical of sorts. Last year, Corbet’s epic directorial achievement, The Brutalist, was in comp at the fest and won him the Best Director Award.
Both George Clooney and Cate Blanchett have returning fare. They were repped last year with the feature Wolfs and the limited series Disclaimer, respectively. Blanchett just received an Emmy nomination for her work on the Alfonso Cuarón series.
This year Clooney stars in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, with a supporting cast that includes Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup. Netflix is also releasing this title.
Blanchett appears in Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother along with Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Adam Driver, Indya Moore and Vicky Krieps.
César-nominated French actor Benjamin Voisin is back after last year’s The Quiet Son, this time with François Ozon’s L’Étranger (The Stranger) based on Albert Camus’s 1942 novel.
As previously announced, Oscar-winner Paulo Sorrentino’s La Grazia will open the festival. And Cédric Jimenez’s Chien 51 is the closing night selection.
Among the other highly anticipated In Competition films are Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite starring Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson–a third Netflix title, Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt and Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Paul Dano, Jude Law and Alicia Vikander.
Charlie Kaufman has an out-of-comp short film, How to Shoot a Ghost, which stars Jessie Buckley.
Megadoc is a backstage doc feature, shot on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, directed by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas).
This year’s jury is headed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Holdovers).
Below is the full line-up.
Opening Night Film
La Grazia, dir. Paolo Sorrentino (in competition)
In Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin, dir. Olivier Assayas
Jay Kelly, dir. Noah Baumbach
The Voice of Hind Rajab, dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
A House of Dynamite, dir. Kathryn Bigelow
The Sun Rises on Us All, dir. Cai Shangjun
Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo del Toro
Elisa, dir. Leonardo Di Costanzo
À Pied d’Oeuvre, dir. Valérie Donzelli
Silent Friend, dir. Ildikó Enyedi
The Testament of Ann Lee, dir. Mona Fastvold
Father Mother Sister Brother, dir. Jim Jarmusch
Bugonia, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Duse, dir. Pietro Marcello
Un Film Fatto Per Bene, dir. Franco Maresco
Orphan, dir. László Nemes
L’Étranger (The Stranger), dir. François Ozon
No Other Choice, dir. Park Chan-wook
Sotto le Nuvole, dir. Gianfranco Rosi
The Smashing Machine, dir. Benny Safdie
Nühai (Girl), dir. Shu Qi
Out of Competition — Fiction
Chien 51, dir. Cédric Jimenez (closing night)
Sermon to the Void, dir. Hilal Baydarov
L’Isola di Andrea, dir. Antonio Capuano
Il Maestro, dir. Andrea Di Stefano
After the Hunt, dir. Luca Guadagnino
Hateshinaki Scarlet, dir. Mamoru Hosoda
The Last Viking, dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
In the Hand of Dante, dir. Julian Schnabel
La Valle Dei Sorrisi, dir. Paolo Strippoli
Dead Man’s Wire, dir. Gus Van Sant
Orfeo, dir. Virgilio Villoresi
Out of Competition — Documentary
Kabul, Between Prayers, dir. Aboozar Amini
Ferdinando Scianna — Il Fotografo Dell’ombra, dir. Roberto Andò
Marc by Sofia, dir. Sofia Coppola
I Diari di Angela — Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Terzo, dirs. Yervant GIanikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Ghost Elephants, dir. Werner Herzog
Baba Wa Al-Qadhafi (My Father and Qaddafi), dir. Jihan K
The Tale of Sylian, dir. Tamara Kotevska
Nuestra Tierra, dir. Lucrecia Martel
Remake, dir. Ross McElwee
Kim Novak’s Vertigo, dir. Alexandre Philippe
Cover-Up, dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus
Broken English, dir. Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth
Notes of a True Criminal, dir. Alexander Rodnyansky, Andriy Alferov
Director’s Diary, dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
Hui Jia (Back Home), dir. Tsai Ming-liang
Out of Competition — Series
Portobello (Ep. 1-2), dir. Marco Bellocchio
Un Prophète (Ep. 1-8), dir. Enrico Maria Artale
Etty (Ep. 1-6), dir. Hagai Levi
Il Mostro (Ep. 1-4), dir. Stefano Sollima
Out of Competition — Film and Music
Nino. 18 Giorni, dir. Toni D’Angelo
Piero Pelù. Rumore Dentro, dir. Francesco Fei
Newport and the Great Folk Dream, dir. Robert Gordon
Francesco de Gregori, dir. Stefano Pistolini
Out of Competition — Short Films
Origin, dir. Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Boomerang Atomic, dir. Rachid Bouchareb
How to Shoot a Ghost, dir. Charlie Kaufman
Orizzonti (Horizons)
Mother dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska (opening night)
Komedie Elahi (Divine Comedy), dir. Ali Asgari
Hiedra, dir. Ana Cristina Barragán
Il Rapimento di Arabella, dir. Carolina Cavalli
Estrany Riu (Strange River), dir. Jaume Claret Muxart
Harà Watan (Lost Land), dir. Akio Fujimoto
Grand Ciel, dir. Akihiro Hata
Rose of Nevada, dir. Mark Jenkin
Late Fame, dir. Kent Jones
Dinți de Lapte (Milk Teeth), dir. Mihai Mincan
Pin de Fartie, dir. Alejo Moguillansky
Otec (Father), dir. Tereza Nvotová
En el Camino, dir. David Pablos
Songs of Forgotten Trees, dir. Anuparna Roy
Un Anno di Scuola dir. Laura Samani
The Souffleur, dir. Gastón Solnicki
Barrio Triste, dir. Stillz
Human Resource, dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Funeral Casino Blues, dir. Roderick Warich
Venice Classics — Documentaries About Cinema
Mata Hari, dirs. Joe Beshenkovsky, James Smith
Elvira Notari: Oltre Il Silenzio, dir. Valerio Ciriaci
Louis Malle, Le Révolté, dir. Claire Duguet
Megadoc, dir. Mike Figgis
Boorman and the Devil, dir. David Kittredge
Holofiction, dir. Michal Kosakowski
Memoria de los Olivados, dir. Javier Espada
Sangre del Toro, dir. Yves Montmayeur
The Ozu Diaries, dir. Daniel Raim
Venice Spotlight
Hijra, dir. Shahad Ameen
Un Cabo Suelto, dir. Daniel Hendler
Made in EU, dir. Stephan Komandarev
Motor City, dir. Potsy Ponciroli
La Hija de La Española, dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas
À Bras-Le-Corps, dir. Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Calle Malaga, dir. Maryam Touzani
Ammazzare Stanca, dir. Daniele Vicari
Watch the full press conference announcement HERE.
