The Venice Film Festival upcoming 80th edition, running from Aug. 30-Sept. 9, announced its lineup and as anticipated, it includes films by big name directors from the US, Europe and Asia.
In the US contingent we find David Fincher, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Michael Mann, Bradley Cooper and Wes Anderson.
The Italian film industry is making a very strong showing with six titles in competition, which Venice had selected before the SAG-AFTRA strike; led by festival 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.
Though Venice was forced a few days ago to pull its originally planned opener, “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, due to promotional complications from the SAG-AFTRA strike, the festival’s complete lineup, announced on Tuesday, has certainly not suffered a mass exodus of Hollywood titles as had been feared
On the contrary, Venice’s prestige in the industry has attracted a slew of big names and barely dimmed its sparkle.
“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 press conference.
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.”
However, while the lineup of films remains healthy and robust, those “actors who are SAG members who are in studio or streamer productions will not be attending,” he added.
Nevertheless, he is optimistic that “actors who are in independent [U.S.] productions – and there are many in Venice – will be coming.”
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.
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).”
Damien Chazelle will preside over the competition jury, as previously announced.
Among the out-of-competition presentations will be Wes Anderson’s 39-minute comedy short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on a Roald Dahl short story and William Friedkin’s drama, “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial,” starring Kiefer Sutherland.
