VENICE, Italy — The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival concludes on Saturday with the world premiere of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” and the awards ceremony.
Because no real consensus choice will be made tonight, eyes are focused on what the jury led by Isabelle Huppert will award prizes to this year. Many of the competition’s 21 titles were divisive, with passionate supporters and opponents.
Among the highest-profile films in the running for the top prize are: Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the non-musical starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga; Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas film “Maria,” starring Angela Jolie as the famed soprano; the erotic thriller “Babygirl,” in which Nicole Kidman becomes embroiled in a complicated affair with an intern played by Harris Dickinson; Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation “Queer,” starring Daniel Craig as a junkie expat obsessed with a young student; Brady Corbet’s 215-minute postwar epic about an architect and Holocaust survivor rebuilding a life in America, “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody; and Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language mediation on death and friendship, “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
Five years ago, the Venice jury surprised the film world by awarding the Golden Lion to ‘Joker’, which went on to win an Oscar for Best Actor for Phoenix. Last year the top prize went to ‘Poor Things’ and the year before that to the documentary ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.’
Although Venice has always been a player in the international festival scene, over the past twelve years it has strengthened its reputation as a major launching pad for awards campaigns. Since 2014, they have received four best picture winners (“Birdman”, “Spotlight”, “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland”) and 19 nominees. And there’s already a lot of buzz about possible nominations for best actress for Kidman and Jolie, actor for Craig and supporting actress for Gaga as the fall movie season gets into full swing.
This year’s festival marked a return to form, with real A-listers back on the Lido to celebrate films both in and out of competition after last year’s striking outing. In addition to the names above, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Sigourney Weaver all lent their star power to the event.
And many took advantage of the opportunity with their fashion. Gaga’s Christian Dior dress paired with a vintage lace headpiece by Philip Treacy made for a major red carpet moment. Like Kidman’s body hugging Schiaparelli, Blanchett’s Armani Privé with strings of pearls running down her back, and Jolie with her fur stole. Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig also played the power couple, with her in a glittery blue Versace dress and him in a cream Loewe suit. The cast of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” also put a spin on the film’s aesthetic with their wares.
The last major film to premiere out of competition is the second part of Kevin Costner’s self-financed passion project. The first part had a glitzy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, but after failing at the box office earlier this summer, the release of ‘Chapter Two’ was postponed in August. Instead, it would also go the festival route.
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