The 82nd Venice Film Festival is officially back on the Lido, running August 27 through September 6 with a loaded lineup. Artistic director Alberto Barbera has assembled an embarrassment of auteur riches for the fall festival season’s most prestigious European stop.
In Competition, we’re looking at world premieres from some big names: Guillermo del Toro, Kathryn Bigelow, Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos, Benny Safdie, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, and more.
The out-of-competition slate isn’t pulling any punches either. Luca Guadagnino has been relegated to the sidebar with “After the Hunt,” an unusual move for a festival that has always favored competition for the Italian-born filmmaker. At the press conference, Barbera noted that Guadagnino requested not be in competition.
Also screening outside the main competition are Werner Herzog’s “Ghost Elephants,” Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante,” Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” Laura Poitras’ Setmour Hersh doc “Cover-Up,” Lucrecia Martel’s “Nuestra Tierra” (formerly Chocobar), and a new feature from Tsai Ming-liang (“Back Home”).
Notably absent is Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player,” which skips Venice in favor of Telluride and TIFF. Another surprising no-show: Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. That one’s Telluride-bound before a TIFF Canadian premiere.
Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante” arrives uncut at a runtime of 150 minutes, following a reported battle with financiers over editing. The cast includes Oscar Isaac, making his second appearance this year following Frankenstein.
Barbera noted that films between 2h15m and 2h30m are becoming the “new international standard,” creating major scheduling headaches for programmers.
Of the 21 films in competition, six are directed by women: Kathryn Bigelow, Mona Fastvold, Shu Qi, Kaouther Ben Hania, Ildikó Enyedi and Valérie Donzelli.
Competition
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold)
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Orphan (László Nemes)
L'étranger (François Ozon)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie)
Elisa (Leonardo Di Costanzo)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
Un film fatto per bene (Franco Maresco)
À pied d'oeuvre (Valérie Donzelli)
Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi)
The Sun Rises on Us All (Cai Shangjun)
Sotto le nuvole (Gianfranco Rosi)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania)
Girl (Shu Qi)
Out of Competition
Sermon to the Void (Hilal Baydarov)
L'isola di Andrea (Antonio Capuano)
Il maestro (Andrea Di Stefano)
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
Scarlet (Mamoru Hosoda)
The Last Viking (Anders Thomas Jensen)
In the Hand of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
La valle dei sorrisi (Paolo Strippoli)
Dead Man's Wire (Gus Van Sant)
Orfeo (Virgilio Villoresi)
Chien 51 (Cédric Jimenez)
Out of Competition (Non-fiction)
Kabul, Between Prayers (Aboozar Amini)
Ferdinando Scianna - Il fotografo dell'ombra - (Roberto Andò)
Marc by Sofia (Sofia Coppola)
Ghost Elephants (Werner Herzog)
My Father and Qaddafi (Jihan K)
The Tale of Sylian (Tamara Kotevska)
Nuestra tierra (Lucrecia Martel)
Remake (Ross McElwee)
Kim Novak's Vertigo (Alexandre Philippe)
Cover-Up (Laura Poitras)
Broken English (Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth)
Notes of a True Criminal (Alexander Rodnyansky, Andriy Alferov)
Director's Diary (Aleksandr Sokurov)
Back Home (Tsai Ming-liang)
Orizzonti
Mother (Teona Strugar Mitevska)
Divine Comedy (Ali Asgari)
Hiedra (Ana Cristina Barragán)
Il rapimento di Arabella (Carolina Cavalli)
Estrany riu (Jaume Claret Muxart)
Lost Land (Akio Fujimoto)
Grand ciel (Akihiro Hata)
Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin)
Late Fame (Kent Jones)
Milk Teeth (Mihai Mincan)
Pin de fartie (Alejo Moguillansky)
Father (Tereza Nvotová)
En el camino (David Pablos)
Songs of Forgotten Trees (Anuparna Roy)
Un anno di scuola (Laura Samani)
The Souffleur (Gastón Solnicki)
Barrio triste (Stillz)
Human Resource (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit)
Funeral Casino Blues (Roderick Warich)
As expected, Snyder's latest is being torn apart by TIFF attendees. No mercy given. The film, which had its world premiere this evening, is being called by some one of the worst movies to ever premiere at the festival.