This year’s Venice Film Festival has announced its line-up with a large number of high-profile films, and many potential major awards contenders, set to premiere on the Lido for the 81st edition of the fest.
After “Joker” won the top prize of the Golden Lion several years ago, it’s no surprise to see the upcoming sequel “Joker: Folie a Deux” in competition again with the film to world premiere there months ahead of its debut in cinemas this Fall.
It will face stiff competition from Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation “Queer” (pictured above) in which Daniel Craig plays an outcast American expat in Mexico who becomes madly infatuated with a younger man (Drew Starkey).
There’s also Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature “The Room Next Door” starring Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, “Jackie” and “Spencer” director Pablo Larrain’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria” starring Angelina Jolie, and Walter Salles’ 1960s Brazil-set activist drama “I’m Still Here”.
“The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux” director Brady Corbet returns with “The Brutalist,” a 215-minute film starring Adrien Brody as a Holocaust-surviving architect. Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Alessandro Nivola, and Guy Pearce co-star in that one.
“Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” director Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” is in competition with Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas and Harris Dickinson starring.
“True History of the Kelly Gang” and “Nitram” director Justin Kurzel will bring his newest film “The Order,” starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult and Tye Sheridan in a story about a 1980s white supremacist organization.
On to out of competition titles now and Alfonso Cuaron will bring his Apple TV+ series “Disclaimer” starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Joe Wright will show off his series “M. Son of the Century” which deals with Mussolini’s rise to power, and “Another Round” helmer Thomas Vinterberg will show his new mini-series “Families Like Ours”.
Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” will open the festival and also screening are “Spider-Man: No Way Home” helmer Jon Watts’ Clooney-Pitt led “Wolfs,” along with Harmony Korine’s home invasion film “Baby Invasion”.
Australian filmmaker Peter Weir will receive a prestigious Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement for his body of work, with a screening of his iconic film “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” set to take place during the fest.
COMPETITION
“April,” Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia, France, Italy)
“Babygirl,” Halina Reijn (U.S.)
“Campo di Battaglia,” Gianni Amelio (Italy)
“Diva Futura,” Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (Italy)
“Harvest,” Athina Rachel Tsangari (U.K., Germany, Greece, France, U.S.)
“I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles (Brazil, France)
“Joker: Folie à Deux,” Todd Phillips (U.S.)
“Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega (Argentina, Spain)
“Leurs Enfants Après Eux,” Ludovic Bouckherma, Zoran Boukherma (France)
“Love,” Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
“Maria,” Pablo Larrain (Italy, Germany)
“Queer,” Luca Guadagnino (Italy, U.S.)
“Sicilian Letters,” Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza (Italy, France)
“Stranger Eyes,” Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, Taipei, France, U.S.)
“The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet (U.K.)
“The Order,” Justin Kurzel (Canada)
“The Quiet Son,” Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin (France)
“The Room Next Door,” Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
“Trois Amies,” Emmanuel Mouret (France)
“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero (Italy, France, Belgium)
“Youth – Homecoming,” Wang Bing (France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION
“Allégorie Citadine,” Alice Rohrwacher, JR (France)
“Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine (U.S.)
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton (U.S., U.K.) – Opening Film
“Broken Rage,” Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
“Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Japan)
“Finalement,” Claude Lelouch (France)
“Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole,” Francesca Comencini (Italy, France)
“L’Orto Americano,” Pupi Avati (Italy) — Closing Film
“Maldoror,” Fabrice Du Welz (Belgium, France)
“Phantosmia,” Lav Diaz (Philippines)
“Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II,” Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
“Wolfs,” Jon Watts (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIES
“Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuaron (U.K., U.S.)
“Families Like Ours,” Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Germany)
“M: Son of the Century,” Joe Wright (Italy, France)
“The New Years,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen Del Amo, Sandra Romero, David Martín De Los Santos (Spain)
OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION
“2073,” Asif Kapadia (U.K.)
“Apocalypse in the Tropics,” Petra Costa (Brazil)
“Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari,” Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy, Switzerland)
“Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989,” Göran Hugo Olsson (Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
“One to One: John & Yoko,” Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice Edwards (U.K.)
“Riefenstahl,” Andres Veiel (Germany)
“Russians at War,” Anastasia Trofimova (France, Canada)
“Separated,” Errol Morris (U.S., Mexico)
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth,” Olha Zhurba (Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden)
“Twst/Things We Said Today,” Andrei Ujica (France, Romania)
“Why War,” Amos Gitai (Israel, France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Beauty Is Not a Sin,” Nicolas Winding Refn (Italy, Denmark)
“Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito” (Parts 1 and 2), Sergio Rubini (Italy)
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003), Peter Weir (U.S.)
HORIZONS
“Aïcha,” Mehdi Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
“Carissa,” Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa)
“Diciannove,” Giovanni Tortorici (Italy, U.K.)
“Familia,” Francesco Costabile (Italy)
“Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland (U.S.)
“Happy Holidays,” Scandar Copti (Germany, Italy, Qatar)
“Happyend,” Neo Sora (Japan, U.S.)
“L’Attachement,” Carine Tardieu (France, Belgium)
“Marco,” Jon Garraño, Aitor Arregi (Spain)
“Mistress Dispeller,” – Documentary – Elizabeth Lo (China)
“Mon Inséparable,” Anne-Sophie Bailly (France)
“Nonostante,” Valerio Mastandrea (Italy) – Opening Film
“Of Dogs and Men,” Dani Rosenberg (Israel, Italy)
“One of Those Days When Hemme Dies,” Murat Firatoglu (Turkey)
“Pavements,” Alex Ross Perry (U.S.)
“Pooja, Sir,” Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal, U.S., Norway)
“Quiet Life,” Alexandros Avranas (France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Estonia, Finland)
“The New Year That Never Came,” Bogdan Muresanu (Romania, Serbia)
“Wishing on a Star,” Péter Kerekes – Documentary – (Italy, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic)
HORIZONS EXTRA
“After Party,” Vojtech Strakaty (Czech Republic)
“Edge of Night,” Türker Süer (Germany, Turkey)
“King Ivory,” John Swab (U.S.)
“La Storia Del Frank e Della Nina,” Paola Randi (Italy, Switzerland)
“Le Mohican,” Frédéric Farrucci (France)
“Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” Khaled Mansour (Egypt, Saudi Arabia)
“September 5,” Tim Fehlbaum (Germany)
“The Witness,” Nader Saeivar (Germany, Austria)
“Vittoria,” Alessandro Cassignoli, Casey Kauffman (Italy)
Isabelle Huppert will preside over the main jury of the festival which will run August 28th – September 7th.