Last year’s Venice launched both Maestro and Poor Things into the awards race, as well as acclaimed foreign-language films Io Capitano and Society Of The Snow (both eventual Oscar nominees), and US indies such as Priscilla (which landed nods for Cailee Spaeny at the Gothams and Golden Globes).
This year, stakeholders will be hoping Venice can launch the likes of Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and Pedro Almodovar’s debut English-language feature The Room Next Doorinto the hearts and minds of awards voters.
And Their Children After Them (Fr)
Dirs. Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma
This directing duo of French twin brothers head to Venice after breaking out in Cannes with Willy The 1st in 2016 and then Teddy in 2020. Their coming-of-age film, based on the novel of the same name by Nicolas Mathieu, follows teenagers across several summers in a post-industrial region. Ludivine Sagnier and Gilles Lellouche add star power to the drama’s young French cast including The Animal Kingdom’s Paul Kircher. The film’s French production heavyweights are Alain Attal’s Trésor Films and Hugo Sélignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi.
Contact: Charades
April (Geo-Fr-It)
Dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili
Kulumbegashvili stormed onto the scene in 2020 with her debut feature Beginning, winning San Sebastian’s Golden Shell for best film as well as being chosen by Georgia as its submission to the 2021 best international feature Oscar. April (previously titled Those Who Find Me) focuses on an obstetrician whose duty of care comes into conflict with the law of the land when she performs abortions. Producers are France’s First Picture and Italian outfits Frenesy Film and MeMo Films. April also plays TIFF and New York Film Festival, and Pyramide distributes in France.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Babygirl (US)
Dir. Halina Reijn
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson star in this thriller about a corporate leader who risks her career and family when she embarks on an affair with an intern. Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas also star. A24 produces with 2AM and Man Up Film, and distributes in the US on December 20, as well as handling world sales. Dutch filmmaker and actress Reijn directed SXSW 2022 selection Bodies Bodies Bodies for A24 and 2AM, as well as Instinct, which played Locarno and Toronto and was the Netherlands’ best international feature Oscar submission for the 2020 awards. Her acting credits include Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book.
Contact: A24
Battleground (It)
Dir. Gianni Amelio
Veteran director Amelio chooses a First World War setting for this ethical drama about two doctors who work in a Milanese military clinic where simulation and self-inflicted injuries are rife. Amelio is a regular at Venice — most recently with Lord Of The Ants (2022) — and has a Golden Lion to his name, awarded in 1998 for immigration drama The Way We Laughed.
Contact: Fulvio Firrito, Rai Cinema International Distribution
The Brutalist (UK)
Dir. Brady Corbet
US filmmaker Corbet returns to the Lido after his debut feature The Childhood Of A Leader won best director and best debut in the 2015 Horizons strand and Vox Lux bowed in 2018. The Brutalist charts 30 years in the lives of architect Laszlo Toth and his wife Erzsebet as they flee post-war Europe in 1947 for the US. Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn star. Production companies are Brookstreet UK, Kaplan Morrison, Intake Films, Andrew Lauren Productions and Lipsync. Focus Features has international rights.
Contact: Focus Features (international); CAA Media Finance (North America)
Diva Futura (It)
Dir. Giulia Louise Steigerwalt
Remember Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, the porn star who was elected to the Italian parliament and married artist Jeff Koons? Well, Diva Futura was the casting agency and film studio she founded in 1983 with Italian pornographer Riccardo Schicchi. US-Italian actress-turned-writer/director Steigerwalt based the script for this follow-up to her directing debut September (2022) on a memoir written by Schicchi’s secretary. Producer Matteo Rovere of Groenlandia also co-produced this year’s Locarno opener The Flood (Le Déluge).
Contact: Piperfilm
Harvest (UK-US-Ger-Greece-Fr)
Dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari
Greek filmmaker Tsangari returns to the Lido, 14 years after Attenberg won Ariane Labed the Volpi Cup for best actress. Freely adapted from Jim Crace’s 2013 novel set in the Middle Ages, and filmed in Argyll, Scotland, Harvest is set in an unnamed place and time and concerns a village that is impacted when visited by strangers from the outside world. Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling and Rosy McEwen star, while Rebecca O’Brien lead produces for Sixteen Films, alongside Louverture Films (whose Joslyn Barnes co-adapts) and The Match Factory. Mubi has rights for the UK, Germany, Belgium and Latin America.
Contact: The Match Factory
I’m Still Here (Bra-Fr)
Dir. Walter Salles
Salles returns to Venice, where he launched Behind The Sun in 2001 and was awarded the Robert Bresson Prize in 2009. This time he tells a story of a Brazilian family from the early 1970s whose path is changed by an act of violence. The film stars Selton Mello (The Clown) and Fernanda Torres (Foreign Land, The House Of Sand), who is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, the Oscar-nominated actress for Salles’ Central Station, who makes a special appearance here. I’m Still Here is produced by VideoFilmes, RT Features and Mact Productions in co-production with Arte France and Conspiracao.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Joker: Folie À Deux (US)
Dir. Todd Phillips
Five years after Joker premiered on the Lido, going on to gross more than $1bn worldwide and earning Joaquin Phoenix the best actor Oscar, Phillips’ sequel arrives in the form of a dystopian musical. Lady Gaga joins the cast as Harley Quinn, the misunderstood love interest of comedian Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), alongside Brendan Gleeson, Zazie Beetz and Steve Coogan. Venice head Alberto Barbera declared the film “one of the most daring, brave and creative films in recent American cinema”. Warner Bros begins the global rollout on October 2.
Contact: Warner Bros
Kill The Jockey (Arg-Mex-Sp-Den-US)
Dir. Luis Ortega
Ortega returns with Kill The Jockey, after Cannes 2018 Un Certain Regard entry El Angel announced the Argentinian filmmaker as one to watch. Nahuel Perez Biscayart stars as a legendary horse rider who is indebted to a mobster, and embarks on a voyage of self-discovery after going missing on the day of an important race. Rei Pictures, El Despacho, Infinity Hill, Warner Music Entertainment and Exile produce the feature, which is supported by the embattled Argentinian funding body INCAA, the Danish Film Institute, Mexico’s EFICINE, Buenos Aires Film Commission and the city of Buenos Aires.
Contact: Protagonist Pictures
Love (Nor)
Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
The second part of Haugerud’s Sex Love Dreams trilogy lands in Venice, after opening title Sex premiered this year in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. The series is inspired by Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours films, with part two centring on two healthcare workers who meet on a ferry, as the man teaches the woman about casual encounters and the questioning of societal norms. Andrea Bræin Hovig and Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen lead the cast, with Lars Jacob Holm reprising his role from Sex. Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum of Motlys (Ninjababy) are producing all three films.
Contact: m-appeal
Maria (It-Ger-US)
Dir. Pablo Larrain
Chile-born Venice regular Larrain caps off his trilogy of biopics about tragic women following the successes of fellow Lido premieres Jackie (2016, winner of best screenplay) and Spencer (2021). This time around, Angelina Jolie stars as renowned opera singer Maria Callas in a reimagining of her final days in 1970s Paris. The script was penned by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight while the supporting cast includes Valeria Golino, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Alba Rohrwacher. Fabula, Komplizen Film and The Apartment produce.
Contact: FilmNation Entertainment
The Order (US-Can)
Dir. Justin Kurzel
Jude Law gets tough in this 1983-set crime thriller as an FBI agent convinced a spate of robberies in the Pacific Northwest are the work of a domestic terror group. Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett and Marc Maron round out the key cast. AGC Studios has licensed the world, with Amazon acquiring the bulk of international territories for its Prime Video platform and Vertical Entertainment distributing in the US. Kurzel’s last film, 2021 crime thriller Nitram, premiered in Competition in Cannes.
Contact: AGC International
Queer (US-It)
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
More than three decades after David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch, the latest major adaptation of a William S Burroughs novel stars Daniel Craig as a US expatriate in Mexico City dealing with his recent heroin addiction and infatuation with a younger man (Drew Starkey). Venice welcomes Guadagnino after his last film Challengers was pulled by Amazon MGM Studios from the festival’s opening night last year due to the actors strike. Fremantle’s The Apartment produces with Guadagnino’s Frenesy Film. Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers) adapts Burroughs’ novel, which was written in the early 1950s but first published in 1985.
Contact: CAA Media Finance
The Quiet Son (Fr)
Dirs. Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
France’s Coulin sisters make their Venice debut with a third feature following a pair of Cannes premieres, 17 Girls (2011) and The Stopover (2016). The family drama with timely political undertones stars Vincent Lindon as a single father whose eldest son is seduced by far-right extremist ideas (titled Jouer Avec Le Feu, or ‘Playing With Fire’, in French markets). Lindon is back in Venice after last year’s premiere of Xavier Giannoli’s series Of Money And Blood, reteaming with producer Olivier Delbosc’s festival-feeding Curiosa Films, which produces alongside Felicita Films. Benjamin Voisin and Stefan Crepon co-star.
Contact: Playtime
The Room Next Door (Sp)
Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Last in Venice in 2021 with Parallel Mothers (for which Penelope Cruz snagged the Volpi Cup for best actress), Almodovar returns with his first English-language feature, following 2023’s gay western short Strange Way Of Life. Sony Pictures Classics holds North America and select territories, and Warner Bros has the UK and select territories. The Madrid- and New York-shot drama follows the relationship between a war reporter (Tilda Swinton) and a novelist (Julianne Moore), who meet again after their lives diverged. Agustin Almodovar and Esther Garcia produce through the Almodovars’ El Deseo.
Contact: El Deseo
Sicilian Letters (It-Fr)
Dirs. Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
The Sicilian directing duo finally arrive at their country’s premier film festival with their third film — after Salvo (2013) and Sicilian Ghost Story (2017) both premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes. Called Iddu at home (‘God’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by a cache of letters discovered after the 2023 arrest of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal. The Italy-France co-production pairs Indigo Film and Rai Cinema with Les Films du Losange.
Contact Alice Lesort, Les Films du Losange
Stranger Eyes (Sing-Tai-Fr-US)
Dir. Yeo Siew Hua
Singapore’s first film in Venice’s Competition follows a young father who receives footage of his private life after his baby goes missing, and tracks down the voyeur. The cast features Taiwan actors Wu Chien-ho and Lee Kang-sheng, and the film reunites director Yeo with producer Fran Borgia, following 2018 Locarno Golden Leopard winner A Land Imagined. The international co-production is also produced by Stefano Centini, Jean-Laurent Csinidis and Alex C Lo, with an international crew boosted by DoP Hideho Urata (A Land Imagined) and editor Jean-Christophe Bouzy (Titane).
Contact: Playtime
Three Friends (Fr)
Dir. Emmanuel Mouret
After premiering most of his previous 11 films at major international festivals over the years, French filmmaker Mouret is back in Venice, where his 2007 romantic comedy Shall We Kiss? premiered in Giornate degli Autori. The comedy drama stars Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier and India Hair as three friends with very different views on modern love and relationships, opposite a starry local male cast including Damien Bonnard, Grégoire Ludig and Vincent Macaigne. Mouret reteams with his longtime producers Moby Dick Films.
Contact: Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide International
Vermiglio (It-Fr-Belg)
Dir. Maura Delpero
Former documentarist Delpero’s well-received fiction debut Maternal, a Locarno 2019 premiere, was set in a Buenos Aires convent. The Italian writer/director returns to her native Trentino-Alto Adige region for follow-up Vermiglio, a period drama that takes place near the end of the Second World War in a remote mountain village. It was shot by award-winning director of photography Mikhail Krichman, best known for his work with Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Contact: Charades
Youth (Homecoming) (Fr-Lux-Neth)
Dir. Wang Bing
Following 2010 fiction feature The Ditch, Chinese director Wang returns to Venice with the next entry in his Youth documentary trilogy, which continues to focus on young, overworked textile workers. The films, which were in production for a decade, comprise Youth (Spring) from 2023’s Cannes Competition, and Youth (Hard Times), which competed for this year’s Golden Leopard at Locarno. Backers include House On Fire, Gladys Glover and CS Production. Wang’s previous documentary works include Three Sisters, which won best film in Venice’s Horizons in 2012, and Mrs Fang, winner of Locarno’s Golden Leopard in 2017.
Contact: Pyramide International
Venice profiles by Gabriella Berkeley-Agyepong, Ellie Calnan, Adam Cole, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Charles Gant, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Lee Marshall, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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