Venice Film Festival Announces Opening Night Film; What Else Could Screen?

You really have to hand it to the Venice Film Festival, they are relentless is having the show go on. Earlier today, they announced that Daniele Luchetti’s “Lacci” will open its 77th edition on September 2, 2020. “Lacci” becomes the first Italian movie to open Venice in 11 years.

“Lacci” is based on Domenico Starnone’s Italian 2017 novel of the same name and deals with an affair that threatens to derail a marriage. The cast includes Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, and Linda Caridi.

Festival boss Alberto Barbera has mentioned that the 2020 Venice Film Festival, set to take place from September 2nd-September 12th, will be a slim-downed affair, Barbera has promised a “significant” lineup with just over 20 films in competition and 50 films selected overall. More importantly, Venice is set to be the world’s first major film festival to happen since the coronavirus shut everything down back in March (has it been that long already?).

Speculation has been mounting about what films could potentially be a part of this 77th edition of the festival. Barbera has mentioned that a greater spotlight will be shone on homegrown films from Italy. As for American cinema, we are still in the dark as to whether films like Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks” will make it into the lineup, especially since there is currently a travel ban on Americans traveling to Europe until July 31st — that ban could be lifted right after that date expires or potentially be extended further into the fall.

Rumors have pointed towards these films being part of the very secretive lineup:

Emma Dante’s The Malacuso Sisters
Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come
Nicole Garcia’s Lisa Redler
Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Miss Marx
Gianfranco Rosi’s Notturno
Małgorzata Szumowska’s All Inclusive
Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibules
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of A Spy
Gianluca Jodice’s Il Cattivo Poeta
Ann Hui’s Love After Love
Andrey Konchalovskiy’s Dear Comrades

These are some fairly tame titles, but many of these could very well leak into the Toronto International Film Festival lineup as well. We will know for certain what gets chosen for Venice when the lineup is revealed this coming Tuesday.

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