What Goes to Venice? McQueen, Guadagnino, Larrain, Phillips, Leigh ...

Hollywood’s obviously in a major period of transition because of last year’s strikes. Even the major festivals will suffer with a lack of buzzy titles this year. We just saw it at Cannes.

I recently caught a glimpse at the potential Venice Film Festival lineup and, although there are some marquee films likely to show up on the Lido this year, there is reason to believe that it might be an underwhelming lineup.

Ever since Alberto Barbera’s reign as Venice boss began 10 years ago, the fest has been moving away from its original roots of platforming, mostly, international cinema, which is what Cannes does best, to become more of a launching pad for American movies that go for Oscar gold.

Many of the international films that premiere at Venice were rejected by Cannes. Others were not ready on time. Case in point, Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” which Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux really wanted in his competition lineup, but the film was pulled at last minute for further editing. Whereas Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” rejected by Cannes, is now in Venice competition.

If anything, Venice benefits from taking place in the fall which is when most Oscar contenders are released — that’s why Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” Pablo Larrain’s “Maria” and Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folia Deux” will most likely premiere there in September.

A recent Variety report also had Ron Howard’s “Eden” launching at Venice, but that might be an out of competition screening; I can’t imagine Barbera having Howard in competition, but crazier things have happened. Maybe Edward Berger, whose “All Quiet on the Western Front” was rejected by Venice in 2022, might also show up OOC.

Another film most likely to premiere out of competition is Jon Watts’ “Wolfs,” which stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney. It’s kind of hard to say no to such a star-studded cast. There are also some question marks regarding American films like Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2,” David Lowery’s “Mother Mary,” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Here.” I can see all of these films skipping Venice in favor American fests like Telluride, TIFF and AFI.

I also see no reason for Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux” not to crack the competition, especially since 2019’s “Joker” won the Golden Lion and was one of the most talked-about premieres Venice has ever had. Even if the sequel turns out to be mediocre, I just can’t imagine Barbera not inserting this one inside his competition.

These are my very early predictions for Venice competition:

Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”
Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”
Pablo Larrain’s “Maria”
Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux”
Lucrecia Martel’s “Chocobar”
Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths”
Michel Franco’s “Dreams”
Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wave”
Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End”
Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here”
Tom Tykwer’s “The Light”
Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “Those Who Find Me”
Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hands of Dante”
Emmanuel Mouret’s “Une Chose et Son Contraire”
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Pietro Marcello’s “Duze”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Serpent’s Path”

That’s 18 titles, plus there will be the usual 4-5 Italian films that crack the comp. I’m not too up to date on what those Italian titles might be, but I’ll eventually find something via one of the Italian papers, most likely La Repubblica, who usually leaks the country’s selections a few weeks in advance.

Other possibilities for Venice competition …

Hong Sang-soo’s “Untitled”
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest”
Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”
Francois Ozon’s “Quand Viens L’Automne”
Xavier Beauvois’ “La Vallée des fous”
Robert Guédiguian’s “La Pie Voleuse”
RaMell Ross’ “The Nickel Boys”
Andrew Patterson’s “The Rivals of Amziah King”
Jon Watts’ “Wolfs”
David Gordon Green’s “Nutcrackers”
Jeremy Saulnier’s “Rebel Ridge”
Wei Shujun’s “Untitled”
Aleksandre Koberidze avec David Koberidze’s “Dry Leaf”
Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson”
Robert Zemeckis’ “Here”
Aude-Lea Rapin’s “Planete B”
Fabrice Du Welz’s “Maldoror”
Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion”

The 81st Venice International Film Festival will be held from 28 August to 7 September 2024.