Next month sees the start of the 76th annual Venice Film Festival which will run from 29th August to 7th September. The line up has been announced today and all anyone seems to be talking about is a little old film called “The Joker” that will be screening in competition. Buzz about Joaquin Phoenix finally walking away with the “Best Actor” Oscar has been going around ever since the trailer dropped back in April.
“The Joker” isn’t the only film being shown at the festival, there will be the world premiere of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new film “The Truth.” Kore-eda had major success with his wonderful and very moving film “Shoplifters” last year. His latest film stars Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve, and Ethan Hawke and incredibly the film was shot over 10 weeks last autumn in Paris.
The festival will also be screening “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” the latest feature from Giuseppe Capotondi. The movie stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, and Mick Jagger. “The Burnt Orange Hersey” is an adaptation of Charles Willeford and centers around an art heist.
Steven Soderbergh’s latest film “The Laundromat” is also in competition, featuring the likes of Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman, this political drama will certainly be generating buzz this Oscar season. Netflix has already snapped up this film who will distribute the film. However, will we see a repeat of “Roma” from last year? Or can “The Laundromat” break the Netflix curse at the next Oscars?
James Gray’s “Ad Astra” is another film in competition. Starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, this film follows an astronaut who goes into space in search of his long-lost father, whose experiment threatens the solar system.
Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” will also be in competition, although the narrative is still under wraps from what I’ve been able to dig up, the film centers around two characters played by Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver who are going through a divorce.
Scarlett Johansson is also starring in Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit”. Waititi will be playing Hitler in this dark comedy set during World War II that follows a young German boy who has an imaginary friend in the form of Adolf Hitler. If this is anything like Waititi’s other films, expect side-splitting jokes by the wheelbarrow load.
Talking about controversial characters…Roman Polanski’s latest film “An Officer and a Spy” will also play at Venice. Polanski was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last year because of his 1977 rape conviction. The decision to have Polanski’s latest film in competition at Venice has caused a lot of us to scratch our heads in sheer bewilderment.
Frustratingly there are only 2 films by female filmmakers in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. These are “The Perfect Candidate” from BAFTA-nominated Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour and “Babyteeth”, the feature debut of Australian TV helmer Shannon Murphy. Believe it or not, this is actually an improvement on the last couple of year’s line ups which saw only a single title directed by a woman in competition. Let’s hope next year, we see a vast improvement in equal representation.
The full list of films in competition is below, along with a list of films being shown outside competition and special screenings.
Competition
“The Perfect Candidate,” Haifaa Al-Mansour
“About Endlessness,” Roy Andersson
“Wasp Network,” Olivier Assayas
“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach
“Guest of Honor, Atom Egoyan
“Ad Astra,” James Gray
“A Herdade,” Tiago Guedes
“Gloria Mundi,” Robert Guediguian
“Waiting for the Barbarians,” Ciro Guerra
“Ema,” Pablo Larrain
“Saturday Fiction,” Lou Ye
“Martin Eden,” Pietro Marcello
“The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be,” Franco Maresco
“The Painted Bird,” Vaclav Marhoul
“The Mayor of the Rione Sanità,” Mario Martone
“Babyteeth,” Shannon Murphy
“Joker,” Todd Phillips
“An Officer and a Spy,” Roman Polanski
“The Laundromat,” Steven Soderbergh
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” Yonfan
Special Event
“Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” Tsai Ming-Liang
Out of Competition – Fiction
“Seberg,” Benedict Andrews
“Vivere,” Francesca Archibugi
“Mosul,” Matthew Michael Carnahan
“Adults in the Room,” Costa-Gavras
“The King,” David Michod
“Tutto Il Mio Folle Amore,” Gabriele Salvatores
Out of Competition – Non-Fiction
“Woman,” Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Anastasia Mikova
“Roger Waters Us + Them,” Sean Evans, Roger Waters
“I Diari Di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Secondo,” Yervant Gianikian
“Citizen K,” Alex Gibney
“Citizen Rosi,” Didi Gnocchi, Carolina Rosi
“The Kingmaker,” Lauren Greenfield
“State Funeral,” Sergei Loznitsa
“Collective,” Alexander Nanau
“45 Seconds of Laughter,” Tim Robbins
Out of Competition – Special Screenings
“No One Left Behind,” Guillermo Arriaga
“Il Pianeta in Mare,” Andrea Segre
“Electric Swan,” Konstantina Kotzamani
“Irreversible,” Gaspar Noe”
“Zerozerozero,” Stefano Sollima
“The New Pope,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Never Just a Dream: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut,” Matt Wells
“Eyes Wide Shut,” Stanley Kubrick
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