A four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, Martin McDonagh’s dark CIA comedy “Wild Horse Nine,” and new work from Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem headline the slate unveiled Thursday for the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which opens in September. Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, said the selection marks the start of a crowded fall film season that will culminate in the Hollywood awards race and, like this year’s Cannes lineup, is lighter on Hollywood studio fare than in years past.
Competition highlights
Among the higher-profile titles in competition is Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, a dark CIA comedy that stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as agents operating in Chile before the 1973 coup. It will play alongside Primetime, in which Robert Pattinson portrays the “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.
The main competition mixes international auteurs and American filmmakers. Werner Herzog brings Bucking Fastard, featuring Rooney and Kate Mara as identical twins. Florian Zeller’s thriller Bunker casts Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a married couple. Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Stéphane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s coming-of-age story Look Back — about two girls who dream of being manga artists — are also included. Casey Affleck will compete for the first time with Company, which stars Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and Nanni Moretti returns to Venice for the first time since 1989.
Documentaries and expanded running times
The festival’s documentary offerings include Alex Gibney’s sweeping portrait Musk, a four-hour examination of the billionaire, and Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile, which follows Russian independent journalists after they leave the country; similar to the first part, it runs 355 minutes.
Other notable non-competition documentaries set to premiere include Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, Barbara Kopple’s Union Town, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Everest: The Other Side, Luca Guadagnino’s seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci film Joie de Vivre, Wim Wenders’ exploration of architect Peter Zumthor, Russell Crowe’s autobiographical musical concert movie What Love Builds, and Laura Poitras’s short about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, They’re Here.
Opening night, jury and special presentations
The festival will open Sept. 2 with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” an adaptation of James Graham’s stage play that dramatizes the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Ink is also in the running for top honors in the main competition, including the Golden Lion.
A jury led by filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal will decide the awards. Other jurors include filmmakers Kaouther Ben Hania, Johnnie To and Shahrbanoo Sadat, and composer Daniel Blumberg. Gyllenhaal also has a film in the program: a Marilyn Monroe–inspired short titled Flesh Impact, in which Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn “give body and voice to the myth of Marilyn,” Barbera said. The 93-year-old Burstyn will receive a lifetime achievement award from the festival.
Barbera said he expects Noel and Liam Gallagher to attend on behalf of the film, which was directed by Steven Knight and will be in theaters soon after, on Sept. 11.
Venice as a launchpad
Venice has long served as a desirable launching pad for Oscar hopefuls, even if festival prestige does not always translate into awards-season success. Last year’s edition featured star-driven premieres from Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Dwayne Johnson, but those films — After the Hunt, Jay Kelly (a Netflix release) and The Smashing Machine — failed to find sustained traction with theaters or awards voters.
Still, the festival often includes at least one eventual Best Picture nominee; last year featured two in Frankenstein and Bugonia. And Venice regular George Clooney will be honored this year with a lifetime achievement award.
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