VENICE, Italy — Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are getting ready to hit the Venice Film Festival this week, from George Clooney and Angelina Jolie to Lady Gaga and Brad Pitt.
But while the A-listers’ draw to those picturesque ports marks a welcome return to form after last year’s lower-wattage edition amid the strikes, the spotlight that matters most will be on their films are. Along with Cannes, Venice – which runs from August 28 to September 7 – is one of the most glamorous launchpads for awards season. The films that do well on the Lido will dominate the conversation until the Oscars in March.
This year’s lineup includes both major Hollywood films (“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” to “Wolfs”) and a wide range of intriguing films from authors around the world. At festivals it’s best to keep an open mind and see as much as possible; you never know what awaits you. But in the meantime, here are 10 movies to get excited about in Venice.
Regardless of which side of the ‘Joker’ discourse you were on five years ago, the fact that everyone involved would be bringing the sequel back to Venice for competition is promising. After all, “Joker: Folie à Deux” doesn’t need any festival buzz. The first film earned over $1 billion and was nominated for eleven Oscars. Venice chef Alberto Barbera told Deadline that it is completely different from the first, a dystopian musical that is “one of the most daring, courageous and creative films in recent American cinema” and “confirms Todd Phillips as one of the most creative directors working on film. moment.” It will be released in theaters on October 4.
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín cannot be ignored when he makes a film about a famous woman with a tragic story (see: ‘Spencer’, ‘Jackie’). This time he teams up with screenwriter Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”) and Jolie to bring opera singer Maria Callas back to life in “Maria.” The soprano was a fixture in the tabloids, perhaps best known for her affair with Aristotle Onassis, who would eventually leave her for another of Larraín’s tragic women: Jacqueline Kennedy. Callas died in 1977, at the age of 53, but remains one of classical music’s best-selling artists. “Maria” plays in competition and is looking for distribution.
Luca Guadagnino returns to Venice with “Queer,” an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel, starring Daniel Craig in a performance that Barbera has called “career-defining.” It follows an American expat who travels to Mexico City in search of a cure. There he meets all kinds of characters and develops an obsession for a young man. The novel was written in the early 1950s, a kind of companion piece to “Junkie,” but was not published until 1985. Others have tried to adapt it before, including Steve Buscemi and Oren Moverman. “Queer” is also looking for distribution.
Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton? We hardly need a description to get excited about that, which is probably a good thing because the details are vague. He says it’s about an imperfect mother and a resentful daughter who are estranged from each other because of a “profound misunderstanding.” In addition to topics such as war, death, friendship and sexual pleasure, Almodóvar said, “it is also about the pleasure of waking up to birds that bring a new day in a house built in a New England nature preserve.” Before its release in December, the film will also make a stop at the New York Film Festival.
Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn made the incredibly fun ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’, so we are especially curious about what ‘Babygirl’ entails. The erotic thriller stars Nicole Kidman (who came to Venice 25 years ago with ‘Eyes Wide Shut’) as a powerful CEO who begins an affair with a younger intern played by Harris Dickinson (‘Triangle of Sadness’, ‘The Iron Claw’). . Antonio Banderas also plays. A24 plans a theatrical release in December.
This 3.5-hour drama from filmmaker Brady Corbet follows architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) on a decades-long journey as they flee Europe after World War II and try to build a life in America. There, Toth meets industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who commissions him to design a modernist monument that will change their lives for better or for worse. Corbet (“Vox Lux”) will not always be a filmmaker for everyone, but he is never uninteresting. Focus Features and Universal are distributing, but the film does not yet have a release date.
There are quite a few innovative offerings in the nonfiction field: Errol Morris’ “Separated,” about the Trump administration’s border policies; Asif Kapadia’s forward-looking “2073”; “Pavements,” Alex Ross Perry’s hybrid documentary about the Stephen Malkmus band; and Andres Veiel’s “Riefenstahl.” But only one made it into the main competition: Wang Bing’s “Youth (Homecoming),” the conclusion of his true documentary trilogy in which he followed migrant workers in Zhili, China’s textile factories, for five years. It looks for distribution.
The second film by Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili is about Nina, a gynecologist who works in rural Georgia and also performs abortions, despite the country’s laws. When a newborn baby dies in her care, an investigation fuels rumors about her morality and professionalism. Three years after the abortion drama ‘Happening’ won the top prize in Venice, it is rumored that this will be one of the outbreaks. Kulumbegashvili’s debut ‘Beginning’, about the bombing of a church of Jehovah’s Witnesses, caused a sensation on the festival circuit in 2020. “April,” which is looking for a U.S. distributor, will also play at TIFF and the New York Film Festival.
Jude Law produced and stars in this 1980s crime thriller about a white supremacist group that his FBI agent character suspects is involved in a series of crimes in the Pacific Northwest. Nicholas Hoult plays the group’s charismatic leader in the Justin Kurzel-directed film, which will hit theaters in December.
‘Attenberg’ and ‘Chevalier’ filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari returns to the main competition with ‘Harvest,’ an adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel set in a medieval English village where the locals use three newcomers as scapegoats for economic unrest . It’s apparently why star Caleb Landry Jones did his “Dogman” press with a Scottish accent last year. Mubi has distribution rights in several European territories, but no dates or US plans have been announced.
This isn’t a movie, but this series coming to AppleTV+ on October 11 comes from Alfonso Cuarón, who wrote and directed the seven-episode psychological thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Blanchett plays a journalist who discovers she is a character in a novel that reveals her dark secret.
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For more coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival.
