Venice Film Festival 2023: the festival programme
It’s starting! The countdown is over, the 80th Venice Film Festival, which will take place from August 30th to September 9th in the Italian lagoon city, starts today. But a shadow has been hanging over the glamorous festival for weeks: the strike by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA author and actor unions has brought Hollywood to a standstill. Productions and promotional tours around the world have been put on hold while negotiations with producers and studios about fair working conditions continue.
Shortly after the strike began, the announced opening film, Luca Guadagnino’s long-awaited flick Challengers, starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, was canceled and the release date pushed back to 2024. This fed rumors that more Hollywood blockbusters could follow and that Venice, one of the most important contact points for potential Oscar contenders, could become a “pan-European festival”, i.e. a purely European event.
But somehow, despite all doubts, the festival has now presented a bulging and remarkable program that combines European art house films with award-worthy large-scale productions. While some works were conspicuously absent (many had hoped for Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon), others raised the odd eyebrow in surprise (including new films by Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and Luc Besson). ; all three directors who have already been accused of sexual assault). It also remains questionable how many stars will receive special permission for the Venetian red carpet. Nevertheless, the Golden Lion will be awarded again this year, largely unchanged from previous events. But the strike remains the number one topic in the minds of the participants.
Venice Film Festival 2023: The program
Finally, Edoardo De Angelis was chosen to replace Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” to open the celebrations with his work “Comandante”, a film that describes the heroic journey of the commander Salvatore Todaro. A German entry is also in the competition with “The Theory of Everything” by Timm Kröger.
The jury, which consists of Jane Campion, Saleh Bakri, Mia Hansen-Love, Gabriele Mainetti, Martin McDonagh, Santiago Mitre, Laura Poitras and Shu Qi, in addition to Jury President Damien Chazelle, will choose from the following 23 feature films.
Venice Film Festival 2023: These films are in competition
“Comandante” by Edoardo De Angelis
“The Promised Land” von Nikolaj Arcel
“Dog Man” by Luc Besson
“The Beast” by Bertrand Bonello
“Off-Season” by Stephan Brizé
“Aeneas” by Pietro Castellitto
“Master” by Bradley Cooper
“Priscilla” von Sofia Coppola
“Finally Dawn” von Saverio Costanzo
“Lubo” by Giorgio Rights
“Origin” by Ava DuVernay
“The Killer” by David Fincher
“Memory” von Michel Franco
“I Captain” by Matteo Garrone
“Evil Doesn’t Exist” by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
“The Green Border” von Agnieszka Holland
“The Theory of Everything” by Timm Kröger
“Poor Things” von Yorgos Lanthimos
“The Count” von Pablo Larraín
“Ferrari” by Michael Mann
“Adagio” by Stefano Sollima
“Woman” of von Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert
“Holly” von Fien Troch
Venice Film Festival 2023: These films are screened out of competition
Shortly after “Asteroid City,” Wes Anderson is back with a new work: “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is 37 minutes long and inspired by Roald Dahl’s quirky short story of the same name about a man who becomes disillusioned with his own wealth.
Courtesy of Netflix
2023-08-30 20:20:01
#Venice #Film #Festival #program #offers #highlights
