PTA’s ‘One Battle After Another’ Skipping Venice Film Festival

A reliable Italian journalist—well-regarded in cinephile circles—has posted on his personal blog that Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated “One Battle After Another” will not be premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Now, before you shoot the messenger, this is coming from a credible journalist and he is well known, especially in the Italian film scene and with regard to the Venice Film Festival. Even the director of Venice, Alberto Barbera, follows him on Instagram.

The PTA news, while unconfirmed by the studio, aligns with growing speculation that Warner Bros. is looking to avoid another high-profile festival fumble, especially after last year’s Venice disaster with “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

Warner Bros. simply can’t afford to drop the ball on this one. “One Battle After Another,” which might have cost as high as $175M, is shaping up to be one of the fall’s most anticipated films, and skipping the fall festival circuit entirely would be a puzzling move on low confidence.

Still, it’s understandable why Venice is being passed on. ‘Folie à Deux’ was practically trashed off the Lido last year, and the fallout put the studio in full damage-control mode for weeks.

That leaves TIFF as the likeliest landing spot—but things there have been frosty between the Canadian fest and Warner Bros. for a few years now. It all started with “The People’s Joker,” a transgressive, satirical reimagining of the Batman mythos that was yanked from the Midnight Madness lineup back in 2022. The reason? “Rights issues,” though it was widely understood that Warner Bros. put quiet pressure on the festival to drop it. No lawsuit was ever filed, but the damage was done: Warner hasn’t premiered a major title at TIFF since.

Could this be the peace deal? Could “One Battle After Another” mark the reconciliation between TIFF and Warner Bros.? It would make sense—Toronto’s a major player, the audience is hungry for a big auteur-driven drama, and with Venice potebtially out, the festival would kill for a world premiere of this caliber.

Telluride? Probably not in the cards. The New York Film Festival is a no-go: it opens the same day “One Battle After Another” hits theaters nationwide on September 26.

So where does that leave us? Somewhere in the middle of a festival tug-of-war with no clear frontrunner. What’s certain is this: Warner Bros. needs this film to land, and land big. Where it touches down may very well shape its fate.