After the mostly miserable cinematic year we’ve had so far, we’re looking forward to film festival season more than ever. The first 50 films for Toronto were announced a few days ago, and now September’s 67th Venice Film Festival has unveiled its full competition line-up, joining Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” and Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” which will open and close the festival respectively (although Taymor’s film isn’t in contention for awards), and Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete,” which will receive an out-of-competition midnight screening.
The big news, although entirely expected, is that “The Tree of Life” isn’t in there. There are few surprises in the line-up; films like Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” and Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” have long been expected to premiere in Venice. But it’s still a pretty tantalizing group of films. US filmmaking is well-represented, with Vincent Gallo’s sure to be divisive new one, “Promises Written In Water,” “Meek’s Cutoff,” from “Wendy & Lucy” director Kelly Reichardt, starring Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, and “Road to Nowhere,” the first film in twenty years from cult auteur Monte Hellman (“Two-Lane Blacktop”). Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti will also be making an appearance, for “Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis’ adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s acclaimed Canadian novel.
There’s plenty of big name auteurs from around the world as well, with the likes of Tom Tykwer, Tsui Hark, Francois Ozon and Takashi Miike all showing new films. Cult helmer Alex de la Iglesia makes a return, after the disastrous “The Oxford Murders,” with clown drama “Balada Trise de Trompeta” (and considering that Quentin Tarantino is chairing the jury, has to be a frontrunner for the big prize, alongside Hark and Miike), and there are new ones from acclaimed Italian directors Carlo Mazzacurati and Saverio Costanzo, as well as Chile’s Pablo Lerrain and Russian documentarian Aleksei Fedorchenko.
Finally, there’s Austinite Athina Rachel Tsangari, producer of last year’s festival smash “Dogtooth,” making a return to direction, and her native Greece, with “Attenberg,” and Anh Hung Tran’s adaptation of Haruki Marukami’s “Norwegian Wood,” which features an original score from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and must be one of our most anticipated films of 2010.
All in all, it’s a very strong line-up, and it bodes well for the latter months of the year. There’s a few other notable absences; aside from Malick, Ben Affleck’s “The Town” and Anton Corbijn’s “The American” were strongly rumored to play at some stage. But with one competition slot still open, and several out-of-competition screenings yet to be announced, it’s possible that all three could still make an appearance. Check out the full list after the jump, courtesy of Ion Cinema.
Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky
La Pecora Nera – Ascanio Celestini
Somewhere – Sofia Coppola
Happy Few – Antony Cordier
La Solitudine Dei Numeri Primi – Saverio Costanzo
Ovsyanki – Aleksei Fedorchenko
Promises Written In Water – Vincent Gallo
Road To Nowhere – Monte Hellman
Balada Triste de Trompeta – Alex De La Iglesia
Venus Noire – Abdellatif Kechiche
Post Mortem – Pablo Larrain
Barney’s Version – Richard J. Lewis
Noi Credevamo – Mario Martone
La Passione – Carlo Mazzacurati
Jusan-nin No Shikaku – Takashi Miike
Potiche – Francois Ozon
Meek’s Cutoff – Kelly Reichardt
Miral – Julian Schnabel
Noruwei No Mori – Ahn Hung Tran
Attenberg – Athina Rachel Tsangari
Di Renjie Zhi Tongtian Diguo – Tsui Hark
Drei – Tom Tykwer