After Cannes surprised many with a selection of newer or less familiar names over the A-list auteurs that often make up the line-up, it’s been keenly anticipated by festival watchers that Venice was due for a big one. The early-fall festival, which has traditionally been a kick-off to awards season, has gained serious cred in recent years by premiering awards heavyweights like “Gravity,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “La La Land” and “The Shape Of Water,” but even aside from that it’s long been one of our highlights of the calendar, with a line-up that often proves more interesting and satisfying than that of the Croisette.
Even with high-profile movies like Claire Denis’ “High Life,” Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Steve McQueen’s “Widows” confirmed to be world premiering at TIFF, it’s been anticipated that Venice would have a line-up for the ages, and that’s been confirmed with the official announcement this morning. If even half of these movie live up to their potential, this might be one of the greatest festival line-ups ever…
We already knew that we’d be getting the premieres of Damien Chazelle’s ‘First Man” and Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” (out-of-competition) but boy, the competition line-up still has an enormous amount of gold in it beyond those. There’s a pair of Westerns in the shape of Jacques Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers” and the Coen Brothers’ Netflix adventure “The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs” (which is now revealed as an anthology film rather than the originally-announced miniseries), Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux” with Natalie Portman and Jude Law, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Paul Greengrass’s “22 July,” Mike Leigh’s “Peterloo,” Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale” (the only female director in competition, which casts a bit of a shadow on an otherwise superb line-up) and new films from Rick Alverson, Olivier Assayas, Laszlo Nemes, Carlos Reygadas and Julian Schnabel
We’re also getting the long, long, long-awaited premiere of Orson Welles’ unfinished “The Other Side Of The Wind,” which Netflix financed the completion of, and was reportedly unable to premier at Cannes due to the festival’s rejection of films by the streaming giant (paired with documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” about the film’s journey to the screen. There’ll also be out-of-competition bows of HBO’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s much-loved novel “My Brilliant Friend,” Errol Morris’ “American Dharma,” about Steve Bannon, new films by Pablo Trapero and Zhang Yimou, and the sure-to-be-controversial “Dragged Across Concrete,” starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn and hailing from “Brawl In Cell Block 99” director S. Craig Zahler.
In some of the sidebars, there’s the premiere of the extended cut of “The Tree Of Life,” a new documentary on Buster Keaton by the great Peter Bogdanovich, another sadly timed documentary on the late great DP Robby Müller and, in the Orrizonti section, Mary Harron’s “Charlie Says,” starring Matt Smith as Charles Manson.
It’s all in all, a hell of a line up. The festival kicks off August 29th, and we’ll be there on the ground to bring you verdicts on all the hottest premieres and more.Read the full line up below.
Competition
First Man – Damien Chazelle (opening film)
The Mountain – Rick Alverson
Non-Fiction – Olivier Assayas
The Sisters Brothers – Jacques Audiard
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs – The Coen Brothers
Vox Lux – Brady Corbet
Roma – Alfonso Cuaron
22 July – Paul Greengrass
Suspiria – Luca Guadagnino
Werk Ohne Autor – Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck
The Nightingale – Jennifer Kent
The Favorite – Yorgos Lanthimos
Peterloo – Mike Leigh
Capri-Revolution – Mario Martone
What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire – Roberto Minervini
Sunset – Laszlo Nemes
Freres Ennemis – David Oelhoffen
Nuestro Tiempo – Carlos Reygadas
At Eternity’s Gate – Julian Schnabel
Acusada – Gonzalo Tobal
Killing – Shinya Tsukamoto
Out Of Competition – Fiction
Una Storia Senza Nome – Roberto Ando
Les Estivants – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
A Star Is Born – Bradley Cooper
Mi Obra Maestra – Gaston Duprat
A Tramway In Jerusalem – Amos Gitai
Un Peuple Et Son Roi – Pierre Schoeller
La Quietud – Pablo Trapero
Dragged Across Concrete – S. Craig Zahler
Shadow – Zhang Yimou
Out Of Competition – Non Fiction
A Letter To A Friend In Gaza – Amos Gitai
Aquarela – Victor Kossakovsky
El Pepe, Una Vida Suprema – Emir Kusturica
Carmine Street Guitars – Ron Mann
Isis, Tomorrow. The Lost Souls Of Mosul – Francesca Mannocchi, Alessio Romenzi
American Dharma – Errol Morris
Introduzione All’Oscuro – Gastón Solnicki
1938 Diversi – Giorgio Treves
Your Face – Tsai Ming-Liang
Monrovia, Indiana – Frederick Wiseman
Out of Competitions – Special Events
The Other Side Of The Wind – Orson Welles
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead – Morgan Neville
My Brilliant Friend – Saverio Costanzo
Il Diario Di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti – Yervant Gianikian
Orrizonti
Sulla Mia Pelle – Alessio Cremonini
Manta Ray – Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Soni – Ivan Ayr
Ozen (The River) – Emir Baigazin
La Noche De 12 Años – Alvaro Brechner
Deslembro – Flavia Castro
The Announcement – Mahmut Fazil Coskun
Un Giorno All’Improvviso – Ciro D’Emilio
Charlie Says – Mary Harron
Amanda – Mikhaël Hers
The Day I Lost My Shadow – Soudade Kaadan
L’Enkas – Sarah Marx
The Man Who Surprised Everyone – Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov
As I Lay Dying – Mostafa Sayyari
La Profezia Dell’Armadillo – Emanuele Scaringi
Stripped – Yaron Shani
Jinpa – Pema Tseden
Tel Aviv On Fire – Sameh Zoabi
Sconfini
Blood Kin – Ramin Bahrani
Il Banchiere Anarchico – Giulio Base
Il Ragazzo Piu Felice Del Mondo – Gipi
Arrivederci Saigon – Wilma Labate
The Tree Of Life (Extended Cut) – Terrence Malick
Camorra – Francesco Patierno
L’Heure De La Sortie – Sebastien Marnier
Magic Lantern – Amir Naderi
Venice Classics
They Live – John Carpenter
The Night Porter – Liliana Cavani
The Naked City – Jules Dassin
Brick And Mirror – Ebrahim Golestan
Street Of Shame – Kenji Mizoguchi
IL Posto – Ermanno Olmi
Last Year At Marienbad – Alain Resnais
The Place Without Limits – Arturo Ripstein
Adieu Philippine – Jacques Rozier
The Ascent – Laris Shepitko
The Killers – Don Siegel
The Killers – Robert Siodmak
The NIght OF The Shooting Stars – Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
Love, Thy Name Be Sorrow/The Mad Fox – Tomu Uchida
Death In Venice – Luchino Visconti
The Golem – How He Came Into The World – Paul Wegener
Nothing Sacred – William Wellman
Some LIke It Hot – Billy Wilder
Venice Classics Documentary
The Great Buster – Peter Bogdanovich
Women Making Films: A New Road Movie Through Cinema – Mark Cousins
Humberto Mauro – Andre di Mauro
Living The Light – Robby Müller – Claire Pijman
24/25 IL Fotogramma In Piu – Giancarlo Rolandi, Federico Pontiggia
Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast – Bruce Weber
Friedkin Uncut – Francesco Zippel