Paolo Sorrentino’s newest film, “La Grazia,” is set to open the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. The film, starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti, will have its world premiere on Wednesday, August 27, in the festival’s prestigious Sala Grande venue.
Written and directed by Sorrentino, “La Grazia” remains largely under wraps in terms of plot. However, the film is rumored to center on the final days of a fictional Italian presidency.
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 Venice, 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.
Some of the other titles that have been more or less confirmed for Venezia these past few weeks include Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Park Chan-Wook’s “No Other Choice,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Brother Sister,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Franz.”
Here’s a running list of titles currently circling the festival:
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
One Battle After Another (PT Anderson)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Father Mother Brother Sister (Jim Jarmusch)
The Ballad of A Small Player (Edward Berger)
The Cry of the Guards (Claire Denis)
Chocobar (Lucrecia Martel)
Sacrifice (Romain Gavras)
In the Hands of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold)
Bucking Fastard (Werner Herzog)
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)
An Affair (Arnaud Desplechin)
Orphan (Laszlo Nemes)
The Wizard of Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Franz (Agnieszka Holland)
Below the Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
Couture (Alice Wincour)
Gaza (Kaouther Ben Hania)
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
Hamnet (Chloe Zhao)
Rosebush Pruning (Karim Ainouz)
At the Sea (Kornel Mundruczo)
& Sons (Pablo Trapero)
The Lost Bus (Paul Greengrass)
Tre Ciotole (Isabel Coixet)
Anemone (Ronan Day-Lewis)
Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper)
Silent Friend (Ildiko Enyedi)
Yellow Letters (Ilker Catak)
Call Me Queen (Emily Catef)
Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky)
I Want Your Sex (Gregg Araki)
The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli)
Sontag (Kristen Johnson)
Switzerland (Anton Corbijn)
El Ser Querido (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
Occupation (Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi)
Dao (Alain Gomis)
Une Illusion Qui a Bbel et Bien Existé (Naomi Kawase)
The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach)
Unidentified (Haifaa al-Mansour)
Rose (Markus Schleinzer)
Calle Malega (Maryam Touzani)
Musk (Alex Gibney)
Lars Von Trier is working on the 15th—and likely final—film of his career, “After,” and according to his producer, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, the screenplay is supposed to be completed this month