It feels like film festival announcements get earlier and earlier every year. There’s still a week of July left, and we’ve already had major announcements from TIFF, NYFF and even London and Tokyo (which don’t happen until November, and will be opening with "The Imitation Game" and "Big Hero 6" respectively). But before any of those arrive, we’ve got the 71st Venice Film Festival, and after unveiling their big-ticket opener with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s "Birdman," the rest of the line-up for the official competition was announced in Rome this morning.
Eagle-eyed festival-watchers will have guessed some of the bigger-name premieres from what were announced as North American premieres by TIFF, but to confirm, Andrew Niccol‘s "The Good Kill" with Ethan Hawke, David Gordon Green‘s "Manglehorn" starring Al Pacino, Ramin Bahrani‘s "99 Homes" with Andrew Garfield, and Abel Ferrera‘s "Pasolini" with Willem Dafoe all join "Birdman" as the big-ticket star-laden American pictures in competition. But arthouse fans may be happier that Roy Andersson‘s "A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence" is finally being unveiled, along with Fatih Akin‘s "The Cut," and, more surprisingly, Joshua Oppenheimer‘s "The Look Of Silence," the follow-up to the much-acclaimed "The Act Of Killing." Other competition highlights in a very French-and-Italian-centric year include Benoit Jacquot‘s "Three Hearts," "Of Gods And Men" helmer Xavier Beauvois‘ "Le Rancon De Glory," and Italian movie "Hungry Hearts," starring "Girls" actor Adam Driver.
Out of competition, Peter Bogdanovich returns with his comedy "She’s Funny That Way" (formerly "Squirrel To The Nuts," starring Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots and Jennifer Aniston, while "The Kids Are All Right" helmer Lisa Chodolenko is back with her four-hour HBO miniseries "Olive Kitteredge." Joe Dante will also crop up with horror-comedy "Burying The Ex" starring Anton Yelchin, while in more literary departments, the omnipresent James Franco attempts William Faulkner‘s "The Sound And The Fury" with Jon Hamm, and Barry Levinson does Philip Roth‘s "The Humbling" with Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig. There’s also be a premiere of Laika’s animated "The Boxtrolls," the director’s cut of the second volume of Lars Von Triers‘ "Nymphomaniac," and new films from Ulrich Seidl and Manoel De Olivera.
As for the Orrizonti side-bar, the starriest entry is Michael Almereyda‘s biker-gang Shakespeare adaptation "Cymbeline" starring Ed Harris, Ethan Hawke and Dakota Johnson, while there’ll be a new feature from Korean favorite Hong Sang-Soo, and from DJ-turned-filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. British filmmaker Duane Hopkins follows up his "Better Things" with "Bypass," while Michael Mann‘s daughter Ami Canaan Mann returns to the festival with second feature "Your Right Mind," starring, uh, Katherine Heigl.
So yeah, no Terrence Malick ,but t’was always the way: there’s a lot of depth to this line-up. Playlister Jessica Kiang is heading out to the Lido this year, so look out from our coverage when the festival’s underway between August 27th and September 6th.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION:
"Three Hearts" (dir. Benoit Jacquot)
"Le Rancon De Glory" (dir. Xavier Beauvois)
"Le dernier coup de marteau" (dir. Alix Delaporte)
"Loin des hommes" (dir. David Oelhoffen)
"Birdman" (dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) (also opening film)
"99 Homes" (dir. Ramin Bahrani)
"The Good Kill" (dir. Andrew Niccol)
"Manglehorn" (dir. David Gordon Green)
"Pasolini" (dir. Abel Ferrera)
"Il giovane favoloso" (dir. Mario Martone)
"Anime nere" (dir. Francesco Munzi)
"Hungry Hearts" (dir. Saverio Costanzo)
"The Cut" (dir. Fatih Akin)
"A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence" (dir. Roy Andersson)
"The Look Of Silence" (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
"The Postman’s White Nights" (dir. Andrej Konchalovsky)
"Fires On The Plain" (dir. Shinya Tsukamoto)
"Red Amnesia" (dir. Wang Xioshuai)
"Tales" (dir. Rakhshan Bani-Eternad)
"Sivas" (Kaan Mujdeci)
OUT OF COMPETITION:
"Words With Gods" (dir. Guillermo Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Amos Gitai, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Hideo Nakata, Alex De La Iglesia)
"She’s Funny That Way" (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
"Dearest" (dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan)
"Olive Kitteredge" (dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
"Burying The Ex" (dir. Joe Dante)
"Perez" (dir. Edoardo De Angelis)
"La Zuppa Del Demonio" (dir. Davide Ferrario)
"The Sound And The Fury" (dir. James Franco)
"Tsili" (dir. Amos Gitai)
"La Trattavita" (dir. Sabina Guzzanti)
"Make-Up" (dir. Kwontaek Im)
"The Humbling" (dir. Barry Levinson)
"The Old Man Of Belem" (dir. Manoel De Oliviera)
"Italy In A Day" (dir. Gabriele Salvatores)
"In The Basement " (dir. Ulrich Seidl)
"The Boxtrolls" (dir. Anthony Stacchi, Annable Graham)
"Nymphomaniac Volume 2: Director’s Cut" (dir. Lars Von Trier)
ORRIZONTI:
"Theeb" (dir. Naji Abu Nowar)
"Line Of Credit" (dir. Salome Alexi)
"Senza Nessuna Pieta" (dir. Michele Alhaique)
"Cymbeline" (dir. Michael Almereyda)
"Io Sto Con La Sposa" (dir. Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry)
"La Vita Oscena" (dir. Renato De Maria)
"Near Death Experience" (dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern)
"Realite" (dir. Quentin Dupieux)
"Goodnight Mommy" (dir. Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala)
"Hill Of Freedom" (dir. Hong Sang-Soo)
"Bypass" (dir. Duane Hopkins)
"the President" (dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
"Your Right Mind" (dir. Ami Canaan Mann)
"Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana" (dir. Franco Maresco)
"Nabat" (dir. Elchin Musaoglu)
"Heaven Knows What" (dir. Josh & Ben Safdie)
"These Are The Rules" (dir. Ognjen Svilicic)
"Court" (dir. Chaitanya Tamhane)
CLOSING FILM – out of competition:
"The Golden Era" (dir. Ann Hui)