Almodovar's ‘The Room Next Door' Set to Premiere at Venice — Mike Leigh's ‘Hard Truths' NOT Going

We are exactly a week away from the Venice Film Festival announcing the lineup for its 81st edition, set to take place from August 28 to September 7. I’ve already published my predictions, and Variety has some additional intel.

Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, will indeed have its world premiere on the Lido. The film will most likely be touring the festival circuit this year, and that includes Telluride and New York.

Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” which was rejected by Cannes, is not going to Venice either. What’s happening with this film? Is it that bad? I’m now thinking a London Film Festival world premiere is a high possibility.

Meanwhile, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Iddu” will be one of the five Italian films in competition this year. Pietro Marcello’s “Duze,” Maura Delpero’s “The Mountain Bride” and Gabriele Salvatores’ “Napoli” are the other ones I can confirm.

I have some additional intel regarding French titles. I’ve already mentioned that Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma’s “And Their Children After Them” and Emmanuel Mouret’s “Une Chose et Son Contraire” will be in competition, we can now also add Xavier Beauvois’ “La Vallée des Fous” and Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s “The Quiet Son.”

Non-competition titles set to premiere at Venice include Jon Watts’ “Wolfs,” Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” and Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion.”

LATEST VENICE COMPETITION PREDICTIONS:

Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”
Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door”
Pablo Larrain’s “Maria”
Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux”
Lucrecia Martel’s “Chocobar”
Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here”
Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hands of Dante”
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”
Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma’s “And Their Children After Them”
Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Iddu”
Xavier Beauvois’ “La Vallée des Fous”
Pietro Marcello’s “Duze”
Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wave”
Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s “The Quiet Son”
Tom Tykwer’s “The Light”
Emmanuel Mouret’s “Une Chose et Son Contraire”
Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “Those Who Find Me”
Maura Delpero’s “The Mountain Bride”
Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes”
Gabriele Salvatores’ “Napoli”

Other possibilities for Venice competition …

Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind”
Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Mektoub: Canto Duo”
Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud”
Rodrigo Prieto’s “Pedro Paramo”
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest”
RaMell Ross’ “The Nickel Boys”
Andrew Patterson’s “The Rivals of Amziah King”
Wei Shujun’s “Untitled”
Aleksandre Koberidze avec David Koberidze’s “Dry Leaf”
Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson”
Kirill Serebrennikov’s “The Disappearance”
Wei Shuju’s “Sunshine Club”
Hikmat Rahimov’s “Apathy”
Gianni Amelio’s “Battlefield”
Marco Tullio Giordana’s “The Life Apart”
Uberto Pasolini’s “The Return”
Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore’s “The Opera!”