The red carpet will be rolled out in Venice for the 81st time – from August 28th to September 7th, 2024, the festival wants to show why it will be the biggest, most important and simply coolest film festival of the year. And these are the reasons…
The Stars Are Back in Town
The actors’ strike, which left the red carpet deserted last year, is history. In 2024, Venice promises a high density of celebrities, with some Hollywood superstars at the forefront. Brad Pitt and George Clooney, for example, have announced their attendance, and are in town for Jon Watts’ action comedy “Wolves.”
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore are also expected; they are part of the cast of the new Pedro Almodóvar film “The Room Next Door”. Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix dance through the lagoon city for “Joker: Folie à Deux”. It is the sequel to Todd Phillips’ “Joker”, which also premiered in Venice in 2019 and received the Golden Lion for Best Film there.
An insane love between the Joker and Harley QuinnImage: Warner Bros.
Former James Bond actor Daniel Craig is coming for his rather untypical Bond role in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”, Angelina Jolie is doing the honors for Pablo Larraín’s “Maria”. Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas are presenting “Babygirl” by Dutch director Halina Reijn. And the cast of the opening film, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, a sequel to the 1988 film “Beetlejuice”, also shines with stars such as Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder as well as Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Jenny Ortega (“Wednesday”). All in all, enough celebrities to crash Instagram. “It looks like it will be the most crowded red carpet of the last decade,” says festival director Alberto Barbera.
Oscar candidates galore
Venice has long since replaced Cannes as the launching pad for Oscar winners, and Barbera knows how to select films that will also impress the Academy.
Many Oscar winners of recent years opened in Venice, including “Birdman,” “Nomadland,” “The Favourite,” “Dune,” “Poor Things” and many more.
Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas – technology makes it possible for Jolie to have an operatic voiceImage: Pablo Larrain
Whether Angelina Jolie hits the high notes as opera legend Maria Callas in “Maria” – yes, she really sings – whether the magic of Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning Spanish films is lost in his English-language feature debut “The Room Next Door” and whether Joaquin Phoenix, who won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2020 for “Joker,” can impress the Academy again as the Clown Prince of Crime, all of this will be revealed in January 2025, when the Oscar nominations are announced.
Political, current and controversial
The Lido is not just about glitz and glamour. Venice’s programme includes some of the most politically relevant films and documentaries of the year, which are sure to contribute to public debate.
Film scene from “5. September”Image: Constantin Film
These include “September 5th,” a docudrama by German filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum that reconstructs the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which Israeli athletes were taken hostage. The film tells the story from the perspective of American sports journalists who were covering the games from Munich at the time.
Andreas Veiel, one of the most renowned German documentary filmmakers, takes on the German director Leni Riefenstahl, the maker of the National Socialist propaganda films “Triumph of the Film” and “Olympia”.
Riefenstahl, who died in 2003 at the age of 101, had always denied knowing about Hitler’s concentration camps and the Holocaust. However, Veiel, who had access to her personal archives for the first time for his documentary, found evidence that Riefenstahl was a convinced National Socialist.
Beyond the history lesson, Veiel sees in “Riefenstahl” an example of the “seduction to fascism”, which is frighteningly topical in view of the rise of right-wing extremists throughout Europe.
Leni Riefenstahl: A passionate admirer of the “Führer”Image: Bavarian State Library Image Archive
British star director Joe Wright explores the origins of fascism in “M. Son of the Century,” a television series premiering in Venice that traces the rise of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Given that the current Italian government is the most right-wing since “Il Duce,” the series will be on everyone’s lips.
Erotic crackling on the screen
Away from the political heavyweights, the world’s oldest film festival is also set to be “pretty hot,” as actor Drew Starkey promises. Starkey is Daniel Craig’s lover in “Queer,” a film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ rather explicit novel about American GIs in 1950s Mexico.
A fateful affair? Scene from “Babygirl”Image: Niko Tavernise/A24/AP/picture alliance
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson go at it in “Babygirl,” which director Halina Reijn says was inspired by 1980s and ’90s erotic thrillers like “Basic Instinct,” “Fatal Attraction” and “9 1/2 Weeks.” Kidman plays a high-ranking executive who puts her career and family on the line to start a steamy affair with her much younger intern.
And “Love” by Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud is about singles who seek spontaneous intimacy via Tinder contacts on a ferry to Oslo. For film fans who prefer the erotic sizzle on the screen to a Disney family film, Venice could be a good idea for a date.
Scandals inevitable
And what would a film festival be without gossip? 2024 is a promising year – and social media will probably explode. First of all, there is the meeting between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who have been fighting a bitter divorce war for years.
For her 50th birthday, Angelina Jolie gave her husband an island: Those days are over…Image: Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IP/picture alliance
Joaquin Phoenix will probably have to face some uncomfortable questions at the press conference for “Joker: Folie à Deux”: He dropped out of a gay drama by Todd Haynes just a few days before filming began in August. Phoenix was supposed to play scenes with “explicit sexual content” in the love story from the 1930s with fellow actor Danny Ramirez. His sudden exit caused the project to collapse, which will now reportedly cost millions and could lead to a legal dispute.
And even George Clooney, who is usually so scandal-free, could be in the hot seat in Venice thanks to a mini-feud with Quentin Tarantino. The “Pulp Fiction” director is said to have claimed that Clooney is “not a movie star,” to which Clooney shot back: “Dude, f*** off!”.
Adaptation from English: Silke Wünsch
