New films by top U.S. directors including David Fincher, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Michael Mann, Bradley Cooper and Wes Anderson will be launching from the Venice Film Festival alongside a robust roster of European, Latin American and Asian auteurs, in a clear sign that disruption caused by two ongoing labor strikes in Hollywood is less than some expected.
Though Venice was forced a few days ago to pull its originally planned opener, Zendaya-starrer “Challengers,” due to promotional complications from the SAG-AFTRA strike, the fest’s complete lineup, announced on Tuesday, has certainly not suffered a mass exodus of Hollywood titles. On the contrary, the Lido’s firepower as an awards season pistol seems to have outgunned the probable scarcity of stars that will be on the red carpet for U.S. films, though even this aspect remains to be seen.
“This past week has been a bit turbulent due to the actors’ strike which, combined with the screenwriters’ strike, took us a bit by surprise,” Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said at the presser.
But, “Luckily the impact of the actors’ strike – the reasons for which are largely understandable – is very modest,” he added, noting that the only film that “we lost” was “Challengers.”
Barbera went on to note that, of course, due to the actors’ strike “actors who are SAG members who are in studio or streamer productions will not be attending.” But, he said he has high hopes that “actors who are in independent [U.S.] productions – and there are many in Venice – will be coming.”
Venice’s upcoming 80th edition runs Aug. 30-Sept. 9.
Netflix, which has a longstanding rapport with the Lido, is launching three titles in competition. On the U.S. side: David Fincher’s “The Killer,” which stars Michael Fassbender as a cold-blooded assassin who begins to develop a conscience, causing him to emotionally crack, and Bradley Cooper’s drama about Leonard Bernstein “Maestro.” The streaming giant is also competing with Pablo Larrain’s allegorical “El Conde,” which depicts dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire with a cast led by Chilean star Alfredo Castro.
Vying for a Golden Lion from the U.S. are Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” — inspired by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” about the system of hierarchy that has shaped America — and Sofia Coppola’s biopic “Priscilla,” an A24 film based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me” produced by Italy’s The Apartment. Michael Mann is in the running with racing drama “Ferrari,” with Adam Driver as the titular character, Enzo Ferrari, and Penélope Cruz as his wife, Laura Ferrari. Neon will be releasing “Ferrari” in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day.
Mexican director Michel Franco’s New York-set film “Memory,” starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, is also in competition, as is “Drive My Car” director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s new under-the-radar work “Evil Does Not Exist.”
Yorgos Lanthimos is in contention with surrealist science-fiction romance “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. The movie, from Searchlight Pictures, is the London-based Greek auteur’s follow-up to 2018’s “The Favourite,” which also debuted at Venice.
The robust six-title Italian contingent in competition – which Venice had selected before the SAG-AFTRA strike – is led by fest opener “Comandante,” an ambitious anti-war epic starring Italian A-list actor Pierfrancesco Favino (“Nostalgia”) as a heroic Sicilian World War II naval officer.
Then there is Matteo Garrone’s hotly anticipated “Io Capitano,” about the Homeric journey of two young African men who leave Dakar to reach Europe, and Saverio Costanzo’s “Finalmente L’alba,” which is set at Cinecittà during the 1950s when the famed filmmaking facilities were known as “Hollywood on the Tiber.” Lily James, Joe Keery, Rachel Sennott and Willem Dafoe star.
Giorgio Diritti’s persecution drama “Lubo” starring Franz Rogowski (“Passages”); actor/director Pietro Castellito’s sophomore work “Enea,” a follow-up to his dark comedy “The Predators” which won a prize in Venice’s Horizons section in 2020; and Rome-set crimer “Adagio” by Stefano Sollima, the genre specialist who is known in Hollywood for “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” “Without Remorse” and TV series “Gomorrah,” round out Italy’s Golden Lion hopefuls.
From France, as anticipated by PvNew, there is Luc Besson’s “Dogman,” starring Caleb Landry Jones (“Nitram”) as a young man who, bruised by life, finds salvation through his love of dogs. “Dogman” marks Besson’s directorial comeback after his 2019 film “Lucy.”
Bertrand Bonello is competing for a Golden Lion with sci-fi romance “The Beast,” which stars Léa Seydoux as a tormented young woman who decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will take her on a journey across a series of past lives.
Stéphane Brizé has made the competition cut with romantic drama “Out of Season” starring Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher.
Poland’s Agnieszka Holland is launching “The Green Border,” about the humanitarian crisis triggered by Belarusian President Lukaschenko, who in 2021 opened Belarus’ border with Poland to migrants hoping to get to Western Europe. Also from Poland, directorial duo Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert (“Never Gonna Snow Again”) are vying for a Golden Lion with “Kobieta Z”…(Woman of).”
Completing the competition are Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s period piece “The Promised Land” with Mads Mikkelsen, and Flemish auteur Fien Troch’s drama “Holly,” set in the aftermath of a big school fire during which its titular 15-year-old female protagonist starts being seen as a saviour by the community in mourning.
Damien Chazelle will preside over the competition jury, as previously announced.
Wes Anderson will be in Venice out-of-competition with his 39-minute comedy short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on a Roald Dahl short story and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. “Henry Sugar” marks Anderson’s first Netflix original.
The out-of-competition selection also includes William Friedkin’s court-martial drama “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial,” starring Kiefer Sutherland. Friedkin will also be on the Lido for the previously announced screening of a recently remastered copy of “The Exorcist” in celebration of the landmark film’s 50th anniversary.
Two other veteran directors roughly of Friedkin’s generation, both of whom controversial, have new works in this section. Roman Polanski’s black comedy “The Palace,” set in a posh hotel in the Swiss Alps resort of Gstaad on the eve of the new millennium, and Woody Allen’s romantic thriller “Coup De Chance” will launch from the Lido. Despite the allegations of sexual abuse surrounding them, both directors have a strong fanbase in Italy.
Harmony Korine’s new under-the-radar work “Aggro Dr1ft,” starring Jordi Molla and rapper Travis Scott, and Richard linklater’s “Hit Man” are among new works by other helmers launching in a Venice out-of-competition berth.
Highlights of the more cutting edge Horizons competition include Tunisian auteur Mohamed Ben Attia’s “Behind the Mountains,” which reunites him with Majd Mastoura, star of Attia’s breakout drama “Hedi”; U.S. director Robert Kolodny’s “The Featherweight,” a biopic of legendary mid-20th century featherweight boxer Willie Pep produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way; and Japanese cult director Shinya Tsukamoto’s new work “Shadow of Fire.”
The Horizons Extra section, dedicated to offbeat works of all genres who are judged by festgoers, includes Jack Huston’s boxing drama “Day of the Fight,” with Michael Pitt; Olmo Schnabel’s romantic thriller “Pet Shop Boys”; and “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” a thriller by Robert Lorenz set in a remote Irish village and starring Liam Neeson and Kerry Condon. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the film in the U.S.
Venice’s previously announced out-of-competition closer is Spanish director J.A. Bayona’s plane crash survival thriller “Society of the Snow.”
COMPETITION
“Comandante,” Edoardo De Angelis (Italy) – Opening Film
“The Promised Land,” Nikolaj Arcel (Denmark, Germany, Sweden)
“Dogman,” Luc Besson (France)
“Le Bête,” Bertrand Bonello (France, Canada)
“Hors-Saison,” Stéphane Brizé (France)
“Enea,” Pietro Castellitto (Italy)
“Maestro,” Bradley Cooper (U.S.)
“Priscilla,” Sofia Coppola (U.S., Italy)
“Finally Dawn,” Saverio Costanzo (Italy)
“Lubo,” Giorgio Diritti (Italy)
“Origin,” Ava DuVernay (U.S.)
“The Killer,” David Fincher (U.S.)
“Memory,” Michel Franco (Mexico, U.S.)
“Io Capitano,” Matteo Garrone (Italy, Belgium)
“Evil Does Not Exist,” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
“The Green Border,” Agnieszka Holland (Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium)
“The Theory of Everything,” Timm Kröger (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
“Poor Things,” Yorgos Lanthimos (U.K.)
“El Conde,” Pablo Larrain (Chile)
“Ferrari,” Michael Mann (U.S.)
“Adagio,” Stefano Sollima (Italy)
“Woman Of,” Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert (Poland, Sweden)
“Holly,” Fien Torch (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France)
HORIZONS
“A Cielo Aperto,” Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga (Mexico, Spain)
“El Paraiso,” Enrico Maria Artale (Italy)
“Behind the Mountains,” Mohamed Ben Attia (Tunisia, Belgium, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
“The Red Suitcase,” Fidel Devkota (Nepal, Sri Lanka)
“Tatami,” Guy Native, Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Georgia, U.S.)
“Paradise is Burning,” Mika Gustavson (Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Finland)
“The Featherweight,” Robert Kolodny (U.S.)
“Invelle,” Simone Massi (Italy, Switzerland)
“Hesitation Wound,” Selman Nacar (Turkey, Spain, Romania, France)
“Heartless,” Nara Normande, Tião (Brazil, France, Italy)
“Una Sterminata Domenica,” Alain Parroni (Italy, Germany, Ireland)
“City of Wind,” Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia, Portugal, The Netherlands)
“Explanation for Everything,” Gábor Reisz (Hungary, Slovacchia)
“Gasoline Rainbow,” Bill Ross, Turner Ross (U.S.)
“En Attendant La Nuit,” Céline Rouzet (France, Belgium)
“Housekeeping for Beginners,” Goran Stolevski (North Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo)
“Shadow of Fire,” Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
“Dormitory,” Nehir Tuna (Turkey, Germany, France)
HORIZONS EXTRA
“Bota Jonë,” Luàna Barjami (Kosovo, France)
“Forever Forever,” Anna Buryachkova (Ukraine, The Netherlands)
“The Rescue,” Daniela Goggi (Argentina, U.S.)
“Day of the Fight,” Jack Huston (U.S.)
“In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” Robert Lorenz (Ireland)
“Felicità,” Micaela Ramazzotti (Italy)
“Pet Shop Boys,” Olmo Schnabel (Italy, U.K. Mexico)
“Stolen,” Karan Tejpal (India)
“L’Homme D’Argille,” Anaïs Tellene (France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIES
“D’argent et de sang” (Episodes 1-12), Xavier Giannoli, Fredéric Planchon (France, Belgium)
“I Know Your Soul” (Episodes 1-2), created by Jasmila Zbanic and Damir Ibrahimovic, directed by Alen Drjević and Nermin Hamzagic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION
“Amor,” Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri (Italy, Lithuania)
“Frente A Guernica,” (Uncut Version) Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
“Hollywoodgate,” Ibrahim Nash’at (Germany, U.S.)
“Ryuichi Sakamoto — Opus,” Neo Sora (Japan)
“Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io,” Giorgio Verdelli (Italy)
“Menus Plaisirs,” Frederik Wiseman (France)
OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION
“Society of the Snow,” J.A. Bayona (Spain, Uruguay, Chile) – Closing Film
“Coup de Chance,” Woody Allen (France, U.K.)
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson (U.S.)
“The Penitent,” Luca Barbareschi (Italy)
“L’Ordine Del Tempo,” Liliana Cavani (Italy)
“Vivants,” Alix Delaporte (France, Belgium)
“Welcome to Paradise,” Leonardo di Constanzo
“DAAAAAALI!,” Quentin Dupieux (France)
“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” William Friedkin
“Making of,” Cédric Kahn (France)
“Aggro Dr1ft,” Harmony Korine (U.S.)
“Hit Man,” Richard linklater (U.S.)
“The Palace,” Roman Polanski (Poland, France)
“Snow Leopard,” Pema Tseden (China)
