The lineup for the 81st Venice International Film Festival is here. I’ll have more on this in the next hour. In the meantime, here’s the competition lineup.
UPDATE: As previously stated, Venice head Alberto Barbera rejected quite a few big names this year, including Mike Leigh, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Audrey Diwan. However, also missing inside this morning’s lineup was Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hands of Dante,” Lucrecia Martel’s “Chocobar,” Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wave,” and Rodrigo Prieto’s “Pedro Paramo.”
The big surprise is Halina Reijn’s A24-backed “Babygirl,” starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, appearing in competition. Nobody saw this one coming. It’s set for a December release in the U.S.
Other than that, the big names expected to show up did, in fact, show up: Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodovar, Brady Corbet, Justin Kurzel, Todd Phillips, and Walter Salles. Not the showiest lineup Venice has had, but it does leave room for breakouts.
Out of competition, Alfonso Cuaron will be premiering his Apple TV series, “Disclaimer.” Harmony Korine is back with “Baby Invasion.” Clooney/Pitt’s “Wolfs” will bring some star power to the red carpet. Ditto Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” which was already announced as the fest’s opening night film.
The president of the competition jury is Isabelle Huppert. She will be joined by James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz, and Zhang Ziyi.
Competition – Fiction
“The Room Next Door” (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
“Campo di Battaglia” (dir. Gianni Amelio)
“Leurs Enfants Apres Eux” (dir. Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma)
“The Brutalist” (dir. Brady Corbet)
“The Quiet Son” (dir. Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin)
“Vermiglio” (dir. Maura Delpero)
“Iddu (Sicilian Letters)” (dir. Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza)
“Queer” (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
“Love” (dir. Dag Johan Daugerud)
“April” (dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili)
“The Order” (dir. Justin Kurzel)
“Maria” (dir. Pablo Larraín)
“Trois Amies” (dir. Emmanuel Mouret)
“Kill the Jockey” (dir. Luis Ortega)
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (dir. Todd Phillips)
“Babygirl” (dir. Halina Reijn)
“I’m Still Here” (dir. Walter Salles)
“Diva Futura” (dir. Giulia Louise Steigerwalt)
“Harvest” (dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari)
“Youth – Homecoming” (dir. Wang Bing)
“Stranger Eyes” (dir. Yeo Siew Hua)
Out of Competition – Fiction
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (dir. Tim Burton)
“L’orto Americano” (dir. Pupi Avati)
“Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole” (dir. Francesca Comencini)
“Phantosmia” (dir. Lav Diaz)
“Maldoror” (dir. Fabrice Du Welz)
“Broken Rage” (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
“Baby Invasion” (dir. Harmony Korine)
“Cloud” (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
“Finalement” (dir. Claude Lelouch)
“Wolfs” (dir. Jon Watts)
Out of Competition – Non-Fiction
“Apocalypse in the Tropics” (dir. Petra Costa)
“Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari” (dir. Massimo D’anolfi, Martina Parenti)
“Why War” (dir. Amos Gitai)
“2073” (dir. Asif Kapadia)
“One to One: John & Yoko” (dir. Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice-Edwards)
“Separated” (dir. Errol Morris)
“Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989” (dir. Goran Hugo Olsson)
“Russians at War” (dir. Anastasia Trofimova)
“Things We Said Today” (dir. Andrei Ujica)
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth” (dir. Olha Zhurba)
“Riefenstahl” (dir. Andres Veiel)
TV Episodic
“Disclaimer” (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, seven episodes)
”Families Like Ours” (Thomas Vinterberg)
“M. The Son of the Century.” (Joe Wright)
The 81st Venice International Film Festival will run between August 28 and Sept. 7.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.