The world’s oldest film festival kicks off this week, and this year is a starry affair. The 21 films selected in Competition and vying for the Golden Lion are all hoping to generate awards buzz, as the Venice Film Festival has become the unmissable Oscars launchpad over the years.
ADVERTISEMENTThe 81st Venice International Film Festival starts this week, and it’s a starry affair that should make up for the lack of red carpet A-lister moments last year due to the Hollywood writers and actors’ strike.
Indeed, the A-listers are finally back, with the likes of Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Cate Blanchett all expected to descend on the Lido over the course of the festival.
“I think this year we’ll have the longest list of talents to walk the red carpet ever,” the festival director, Alberto Barbera, said. “We’ve recovered from last year’s strikes. All the casts of every movie will attend the festival and walk the red carpet.”
It all kicks off on 28 August with the opening film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s sequel to the 1988 cult film (screening out of competition), and like every year, there’s everything to play for.
Indeed, Venice has steadily gained the reputation for being the awards season launchpad, with the likes of Gravity, Birdman, La La Land, The Shape of Water, The Favourite, Joker, Nomadland, The Whale and last year’s Poor Things all premiering on the Lido and going on to rake in the Golden Baldies.
This year’s jury, led by French actress Isabelle Huppert and comprised of James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi, will have an exhilarating but tough few days in awarding this year’s coveted Golden Lion – which will kickstart all the awards chat come the Oscars next year.
Without further ado, here are our picks of the 10 must-see films premiering in Competition this year, which will doubtlessly be part of the awards chatter.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Let’s get this one out of the way, shall we? The sequel to 2019’s Joker is the buzziest title of the festival this year, with director Todd Phillips teaming up with Joaquin Phoenix once more. But this time, Lady Gaga is joining for what will not be a straightforward psychological thriller like the first, but boldly take on the form of a jukebox musical. Joker was a risky but profitably gambit, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the first R-rated film to do so. It won the Golden Lion in Venice, got 11 Oscar nominations, and bagged two for Best Actor and Best Original Score. So there’s a lot riding on the unconventional sequel’s shoulders... Including the possibility of a sequel winning the Golden Lion – which would be a first. We’re keeping our expectations in check for Folie à Deux, as we have our reservations about the need for a sequel, and while Joker was a decent time, it felt like an underwhelming rehash of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy – what SNL (accurately) described as “White Male Rage: The Movie”. It was powered by a barnstorming central performance by Phoenix, granted, but did it deserve the Golden Lion? Probably not. Still, this Clown Prince of Crime sequel seems like a singular vision and certainly more audacious than its predecessor, as a musical is the last thing anyone expected. All that’s left to see is if this sequel will provoke the same sort of hullabaloo as the first film when it premiered in Venice, as many were decrying the film for being “irresponsible” and “incel-friendly,” and whether Folie à Deux will lead Lady Gaga to finally get the Oscar she tried so hard to nab with House of Gucci and should have won for A Star Is Born…
Queer
We’re huge fans of Luca Guadagnino here at Euronews Culture, and for his second film out this year after Challengers, the Italian director returns to the Lido with an adaptation of a William S Burroughs novel. It stars Daniel Craig as an American drifter in 1940s Mexico City dealing with his recent heroin addiction and infatuation with a younger, discharged Navy serviceman (Drew Starkey). The novel – written in the early 1950s but first published in 1985 – is adapted by Justin Kuritzkes, who was also behind Challengers, so that’s a good sign. Also a strong indicator of quality for this libidinous and existential film is Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera praising the world premiere as Craig’s best performance yet — and Guadagnino’s best film. Bold words, as Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria and Bones And All are tough acts to follow. Still, Guadagnino rarely delivers a bad film, and the inclusion of Queer in Competition is also something of a welcome consolation, as Challengers was supposed to open last year’s Venice Film Festival but was pulled because of the SAG/WGA strikes. We’ve got high hopes for this one.
The Room Next Door
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar was last in Venice in 2021 for Parallel Mothers, for which Penélope Cruz won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. This year, he returns to the Lido with his first English-language feature, following last year’s Cannes-premiering gay western short Strange Way Of Life. It’s an adaptation of American novelist Sigrid Nunez’s “What Are You Going Through” and follows the relationship between a war reporter dying of cancer (Tilda Swinton) and a novelist and former co-worker (Julianne Moore). Expect musings about friendship, death, love and war – with all the stunning costumes that Almodóvar has treated us to over the years. Almodóvar has said that “it also talks about the pleasure of waking up to birds bringing a new day at a house built on a natural reserve in New England.” We’re not sure what he means by that (yet) and we can’t wait to find out.
Babygirl
A lot of films in the line-up this year promise to bring the erotic goods, and none more so than Babygirl, from Dutch filmmaker and actress Halina Reijn, who previously directed Bodies Bodies Bodies, as well as Instinct, which was the Netherlands’ best international feature Oscar submission in 2020. Starring Nicole Kidman as a successful CEO who risks her career and family when she embarks on a risky affair with a younger intern (Triangle of Sadness’ Harris Dickinson), this has already gotten us all hot and bothered. And for good reason: Instinct centred on a psychosexual relationship between a sex offender and his therapist, and showed that Reijn could handle steamy and slanted power dynamics with brio. And considering last year’s Venice-premiering May December also touched upon similar themes of gender and power – and was one of our favourites in Competition – Babygirl already looks like it will be transgressive, thought-provoking and starry – as Antonio Banderas, Esther McGregor and Sophie Wilde also star.
Kjærlighet (Love)
Speaking of eroticism and gender, Love is the second part of Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex Love Dreams trilogy, which follows Sex – which premiered in Berlin’s Panorama section this year. Love centres on two healthcare workers, Marianne and Tor, who question societal norms with regards to sex and conventional relationships. Tor spends a significant portion of time seeking casual encounters with men on ferries, and Marianne begins to explore his perspective. The director has described Love as about “striving for sexual and emotional closeness with others without necessarily conforming to the societal norms and conventions that govern relationships.” He adds: “The film also suggests that certain experiences and practices within the homosexual community might offer valuable insights for broader society.” We can’t wait.
The Brutalist
US filmmaker Brady Corbet is no stranger to Lido. After his debut feature The Childhood Of A Leader won Best Director and Best Debut in the 2015 Horizons strand and the Natalie Portman-starring Vox Lux bowed in 2018, he returns with The Brutalist – which is easily his most ambitious project yet. The epic historical drama charts 30 years in the lives of a Hungarian-born Jewish architect, László Toth (Adrien Brody), and his wife, Erzsebet (Felicity Jones), as they flee post-war Europe in 1947 for the US. Also starring Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn, the film is said to have a runtime of three hours and thirty-five minutes – and a 15-minute intermission. Did you hear that? That was the sound of a lot of journalists’ bladders cheering in unison. Hopefully, the ambitious epic will be one of the standouts of the festival, as this one has us very excited.
Maria
Another Venice regular returning to the Lido this year is Chilean director Pablo Larraín, who graces the Competition with Maria, a Maria Callas biopic that caps off his trilogy of tragic women, following the Venice premieres of Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021). Angelina Jolie stars as the renowned opera singer, named “La Divina”, in a reimagining of her final days in 1970s Paris. Indeed, Callas died of a heart attack aged 53 and the film will probably deal with her tumultuous relationship with business magnate Aristotle Onassis... who would end up leaving Callas for Jacqueline Kennedy, the focus of Jackie. Yes, we’re going full circle for the trilogy closer. Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who also wrote Spencer, we’re looking forward to seeing Larraín’s spin on the biopic genre – which he is known for subverting. Also of interest is what Jolie does with the role, as Maria is one of her biggest roles in years; and considering Jackie and Spencer earned both Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart Oscar nominations, maybe third time’s a charm...
April
In 2020, Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili delivered her stunning debut feature Beginning, which won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell for Best Film - as well as being chosen by Georgia as its submission to the 2021 best international feature Oscar. April (previously titled Those Who Find Me) focuses on Nina, an obstetrician working in rural Georgia who also performs abortions, despite the laws of the country. When a newborn dies in her care, an investigation begins and ramps up rumours about her morality. As cynical as it may be to state, but the truth is that abortion dramas work well with festival juries, with Audrey Diwan’s Happening winning the Golden Lion in 2021. And considering that Kulumbegashvili is one of the most exciting directors currently working, there’s every reason to believe that the buzz may well materialise into wins for April.
ADVERTISEMENTJouer Avec Le Feu (The Quiet Son)
French directing siblings Delphine and Muriel Coulin make their Venice debut with a family drama about a single and devoted father (Vincent Lindon) whose youngest son, Louis, is off to study at the prestigious Sorbonne, while his eldest, Fus, takes another path and is seduced by far-right extremist ideas. Featuring timely political undertones and addressing the resurgence of the far right in Europe, The Quiet Son (titled Jouer Avec Le Feu – literally: ‘Playing With Fire’) sounds like a harrowing exploration of how violence fascinates young minds and how hateful values can tear up family units. We’re expected to be braced.
Harvest
Greek New Wave filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari makes a comeback to the Lido, 14 years after Attenberg won Ariane Labed the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. Her latest film, Harvest, is freely adapted from Jim Crace’s 2013 novel set in England in the Middle Ages. It focuses on a village that is impacted when visited by outsiders, who are scapegoated for the burning of a barn. Caleb Landry Jones stars, and this film is apparently the reason why the actor did his press tour for Dogman (which premiered last year in Venice) with a thick Scottish accent. Let’s hope it was worth the trouble...
The 81st Venice Film Festival starts on 28 August and lasts until 7 September. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for all the news and reviews from the Lido.
