The 83rd Venice International Film Festival opened on the evening of September 2 in Venice, Italy. Ahead of the opening, organizers had considered canceling the traditional press conference held by the festival's jury, apparently to avoid uncomfortable questions, according to National News Service correspondent Marina Latysheva, who is reporting from the festival.
La Mostra, the oldest of the world's "big five" film festivals, built a competition lineup this year notable not just for strong performances but for films likely to reach a wide mainstream audience.
Star-studded competition lineup
Among the films competing for awards is Werner Herzog's "Bucking Fastard," about two sisters so close they speak in unison. The roles are played by sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, two accomplished actresses who have never appeared together on screen before.
Also in contention is Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine," a black comedy starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell about two CIA agents traveling to Easter Island. Rockwell's previous collaboration with McDonagh, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," earned him an Oscar. Malkovich, one of the most significant actors of his generation and a two-time Academy Award nominee, has yet to win one.
Lance Oppenheim's "Primetime," starring Robert Pattinson, centers on Chris Hansen, the controversial television host known for a show exposing suspected pedophiles and for his highly unethical methods. Pattinson, 40, has long moved past his "Twilight" days, appearing in blockbusters as Batman while also working with distinctive directors including Herzog, David Cronenberg, Anton Corbijn, James Gray, Claire Denis, Robert Eggers, Lynne Ramsay, Bong Joon-ho and Christopher Nolan.
Florian Zeller's "Bunker" follows a married couple at a crossroads, played by real-life spouses Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Zeller's films typically examine crises within families; his previous film, "The Father," brought Anthony Hopkins a second Oscar, following his first for "The Silence of the Lambs" decades earlier.
A South Korean auteur returns
Perhaps the most anticipated competition film is "Possible Love" ("Ganeunghan sarang") from South Korean director, screenwriter and novelist Lee Chang-dong, creator of "Poetry" and "Burning," a recipient of France's Legion of Honor and winner of prizes at Cannes and Venice. The new film is described as the story of two married couples whose lives intersect during the making of a documentary.
For nearly a decade, until 2017, Lee Chang-dong was largely shut out as an opposition figure in a deeply conservative South Korea and was placed on a government blacklist, whose members faced constant investigation of their work and were denied state subsidies. The government later changed, and the director remained. "Possible Love" has already been submitted as South Korea's entry for the Oscars.
Hollywood keeps its distance
Studio films are scarce in this year's program. Festival leadership said this was not because Hollywood had turned away from the Lido but because of a broader industry crisis and production slowdown that left major films unready for the autumn season.
Still, one of the festival's highest-profile out-of-competition premieres is a studio project: Disney's documentary "Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger," chronicling the band's reunion tour. Brit-pop's Liam and Noel Gallagher are expected at the Lido, and the film is due on Disney+ this autumn.
Politics dominates this year's slate
Politics runs through many of this year's selections. Out of competition is the international drama "No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman," about a Kurdish sniper searching for her younger sister in destroyed Mosul. Its title refers to a belief held by Islamic State militants that explained why they feared the Kurdish women fighting against them.
Also screening out of competition is the French film "Jupiter" by Alexandre Smith, about a government that relocates in full to a bunker beneath the Elysee Palace after an assassination attempt on Russia's president and his promised retaliation against NATO countries.
The non-fiction, out-of-competition lineup includes Alex Gibney's "Musk," about Elon Musk; Julia Loktev's "My Undesirable Friends: Part II, Exile," about opposition journalists who left Russia; and Amos Gitai's "The Road to Jericho," on whether peace is possible in the Middle East. In competition are Iranian director Ali Asgari's "Kami Nour," about a doctor who considers suicide after his arrest and the closure of his practice, and Marco Bechis's "Ritorno a Buenos Aires," about former prisoners who return to Argentina from exile and must testify against their former jailers.
The opening film, Danny Boyle's "Ink," starring Jack O'Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, tells the story of the tabloid The Sun and its influence on modern journalism.
The festival's most closely watched political premiere may be "NAZA," from Oscar-winning documentarians Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, shot in Tel Aviv during the ongoing war in Gaza. The festival did not disclose the film's participation in advance for security reasons and confirmed it only at the last moment.
A press conference nearly canceled
Major film festivals have long welcomed political films, but that stance increasingly brings complications, particularly around the war in Gaza. At the opening press conference of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February this year, jury president and German director Wim Wenders said filmmakers should stay out of politics, a remark that drew accusations of hypocrisy against Wenders and Berlinale leadership. Writer and activist Arundhati Roy canceled her trip to Berlin and withdrew her film from the program in response.
Rumors circulated that Venice was considering playing it safe this year by breaking with protocol and scrapping its pre-opening jury press conference altogether. The festival confirmed as much to the American trade publication Deadline, citing vague "scheduling overlaps." After a wave of media coverage, the festival reversed course, announcing the jury press conference would go ahead alongside a welcome cocktail reception for press, where accredited guests would also get a chance to question festival leadership.
When the festival ends
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival runs through September 12. The winners of the festival's awards, including the top prize, the Golden Lion, will be announced by an international jury chaired by American actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal.
