The Venice Film Festival is always one of the highlights of the film-going year, and the line-up announced this morning for its 73rd installment, which kicks off next month, suggests that that’ll certainly be the case again, and that Cannes more and more faces some stiff competition from its waterbound competitor.
Venice has sometimes risked being overshadowed by TIFF by the U.S. press at least, but after a killer run of premieres in recent years including big Oscar-players like “Gravity,” “Birdman” and “Spotlight,” it’s attracting big-ticket movies as well as the usual great selection of world cinema that it’s always displayed.
Joining already-announced opening film “La La Land” (Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” follow-up starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone will be in competition) are heavily rumored big movies like Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Close Encounters”-style sci-fi “Arrival,” and Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven” remake will get a big out-of-competition bow too.
But there are some surprises too, the biggest of which is Terrence Malick’s “Voyage Of Time,” which will be bow in full 90-minute, Cate Blanchett-narrated form in competition. Also in there are Pablo Larrain’s “Jackie” starring Natalie Portman (seemingly a last-minute addition), Derek Cianfrance’s “The Light Between Oceans” (which opens just a few days into the festival in the U.S.), and “A Girl Who Walks Home Alone At Night” director Ana Lily Amirpour’s cannibal romance “The Bad Batch,” Western “Brimstone” starring Guy Pearce and Kit Harington, plus new films from Stephane Brize, Lav Diaz, Amat Escalante, Andrei Konchalovsky, Francois Ozon and Wim Wenders.
Out of competition, Portman will return in Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Planetarium,” while Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts star in “The Bleeder,” Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge” gets a premiere as does Northern Ireland peace process movie “The Journey,” Kim Jee-Woon’s “The Age Of Shadows” and Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave documentary “Once More With Feeling.” Almost inevitably, there’s a James Franco movie too, his adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “In Dubious Battle” starring Bryan Cranston and Selena Gomez.
It’s a pretty spectacular line-up, and we can’t wait to get stuck into it. Check out the full list below, and you can see our coverage here from August 31st.
In Competition
“The Bad Batch – dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
“Une vie” – dir. Stéphane Brizé
“La La Land” – dir. Damien Chazelle
“The Light Between Oceans” – dir. Derek Cianfrance
“El Ciudadano Ilustre” – dir. Mariano Cohn & Gaston Duprat
“Spira mirabilis” – dir. Massimo D’Anolfi & Martina Parenti
“The Woman Who Left” – dir. Lav Diaz
“La Region Salvaje – dir. Amat Escalante
“Nocturnal Animals” – dir. Tom Ford
“Piuma” – dir. Roan Johnson
“Paradise” – dir. Andrei Konchalovsky
“Brimstone” – dir. Martin Koolhoven
“On The Milky Road” – dir. Emir Kusturica
“Jackie” – dir. Pablo Larrain
“Voyage Of Time” – dir. Terrence Malick
“El Cristo ciego” – dir. Christopher Murray
“Frantz” – dir. Francois Ozon
“Questi giorni” – dir. Giuseppe Piccioni
“Arrival” – dir. Denis Villeneuve
“Les beaux jours d’Aranjuez 3D” – dir. Wim Wenders
Special Event
“The Young Pope” Episode 1 & 2 – dir. Paolo Sorrentino
“Planetarium” – dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
Out Of Competition
“The Bleeder” – dir. Philippe Falardeau
“The Magnificent Seven” – dir. Antoine Fuqua
“Hacksaw Ridge” – dir. Mel Gibson
“The Journey” – dir. Nick Hamm
“A jamais” – dir. Benoit Jacquot
“Gantz:O” – dir. Yasushi Kawamura
“The Age Of Shadows” – dir. Kim Jee-Woon
“Monte” – dir. Amir Naderi
“Tommaso” – dir. Kim Rossi Stuart
“Our War” – dir. Bruno Chiaravalloti, Claudi Jampaglia, Benedetta Argentieri
“I Called Him Morgan” – dir. Kasper Collin
“Once More With Feeling” – dir. Andrew Dominik
“Austerlitz” — dir. Sergei Loznitsa
“Assalto al Cielo” — dir. Francesco Munzi
“Safari” – dir. Ulrlich Seidl
“American Anarchist” — dir. Charlie Siskel
Orrizonti
“Tarde para la ira” – dir. Raul Arevalo
“King Of The Belgians” – dir. Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth
“Through The Wall” – dir. Rama Burshtein
“Liberami” – dir. Federica Di Giacomo
“Big Big World” – dir. Reha Erdem
“Gukoroku” – dir. Ishikawa Kei
“Maudite Poutine” – dir. Karl Lemieux
“Sao Jorge” – dir. Marco Martins
“Dawson City: Frozen Time” – dir. Bill Morrison
“Reparer les vivants” – dir. Katell Quillevere
“White Sun” – dir. Deepak Rauniyar
“Malaria” – dir. Parviz Shahbazi
“Kekszakallu” – dir. Gaston Solnicki
“Home” – dir. Fien Troch
“Sie Einsiedler” – dir. Ronny Trocker
“Il piu grande sogno” – dir. Michele Vannucci
“Boys In the Trees” – dir. Nicholas Verso
“Bitter Money” – dir. Wang Bing
Out Of Competition Orrizonti
“Dark Night” – dir. Tim Sutton
Cinema Nel Giardino
“Inseperables” – dir. Marcos Carnevale
“Franca: Chaos And Creation” – dir. Francesco Carrozzini
“In Dubious Battle” – dir. James Franco
“The Net” – dir. Kim Ki-Duk
“L’estate addosso – dir. Gabriele Muccino
“The Secret Life Of Pets” – dir. Chris Renaud & Yarrow Cheney
“Robinu” _ dir. Michele Santoro
“My Art” – dir. Laurie Simmons