This afternoon, CEO Efe Cakarel held a Q&A session at SXSW London. In the process, he confirmed two films that will likely crack Venice competition.
The first title is Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” which was — controversially—tossed aside by Cannes. This is actually a pretty big get for Venice as Jarmusch is a major auteur filmmaker and the cast includes Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, and Charlotte Rampling.
The film tells three separate stories set in different countries and revolving around relationships between adults, children, their somewhat distant parents and each other. The first part, “Father,” is set on the East Coast in the Northeastern U.S., “Mother” in Dublin, and “Sister Brother” in Paris.
The second film is a tad more surprising, it’s Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” which reunites the Italian filmmaker with his longtime muse Toni Servillo. The film wrapped shooting last month, and is currently in post production. There are currently no plot details for this one.
Sorrentino is coming off the timid reception his “Parthenope” received at last year’s Cannes, but he’s an international force to be reckoned with. He won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2008 for “Il Divo.” At the Venice Film Festival, he won the Silver Lion for Best Director in 2021 for “The Hand of God,” Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” also won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2014.
So, Venice is shaping up quite nicely this year, and I’m sure its boss, Alberto Barbera, must be happy about Sorrentino’s inclusion since the festival tends to sometimes lean more heavily on American films.
So far, with Jarmusch and Sorrentino’s inclusion, some of the names being touted for this year’s competition are Yorgos Lanthimos, Park Chan-wook, Darren Aronofsky, Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Benny Safdie, Claire Denis, Edward Berger, Chloe Zhao, Lucrecia Martel, Laszlo Nemes and Olivier Assayas.