A year has passed since the Venice Film Festival, considered second in importance only to Cannes, proceeded despite the Hollywood actors’ strike, resulting in the festival hosting only a handful of celebrities. It seems the Lido is gearing up to welcome a galaxy of celebrities once again. The likes of Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix and Jude Law, among others, are set to grace the 2024 festival by appearing in the officially selected films.
The festival’s commences on the 28th of August, with the world debut of Tim Burton’s sequel to his 1988 hit, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’, with the event winding up on the 7th of September.
As followers of the Venice event anticipated, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, a follow-up to his previous award-winning film ‘Joker’, is expected to be the most eye-catching competitor. Phoenix will be reprising his previous title role whereas Lady Gaga is set to star as Harley Quinn in a musical drama. In what may be a subdued presence for Irish representation, Brendan Gleeson might also make an appearance due to his supporting role in the film.
Other contenders for the 2024 Golden Lion include ‘Maria’, a Pablo Larrain film featuring Angelina Jolie in the role of the enchanting opera singer Maria Callas. This film seems to be a culmination of Larrain’s trilogy focusing on the tragic solitude of iconic women. Previous films, ‘Jackie’ (2016) and ‘Spencer’ (2021), premiered at the same festival.
The internationally renowned Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar, will make his first foray into English-language directing with ‘The Room Next Door’ at 74. The film, featuring Tilda Swinton as a war correspondent and Julianne Moore as her confidant, was predicted to premier in 2025 but will be debuting at the event. Justin Kurzel, known for ‘Nitram’, will compete with ‘The Order’, a criminal drama featuring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult.
Believe it or not, the race for the Oscars next year is already kicking off. Last year’s winner of the Golden Lion, Poor Things, an Irish co-production, went ahead and bagged four Academy Awards. This year, spectators are keeping a close eye on Daniel Craig’s performance in Luca Guadagnino’s take on William S Burrough’s ‘Queer’. ‘The Brutalist’, directed by Brady Corbet and featuring Adrien Brody in the role of a Holocaust survivor in post-war America, promises to be grand in scale. Also in competition is Halina Reijn’s ‘Babygirl’, wherein Nicole Kidman plays a CEO engaged in a romantic affair with the younger Harris Dickinson.
Outside of the primary competition, the world premiere at the festival is bound to be a glamourous affair with Hollywood heartthrobs George Clooney and Brad Pitt attending Jon Watts’s action drama ‘Wolfs’. The festival has been a premier venue for such glamorous affairs since its inception in 1932.
For the 81st Venice Film Festival, a plethora of films have been selected for competition, including – ‘The Room Next Door’ by Pedro Almodóvar, ‘Campo di Battaglia’ by Gianni Amelio, ‘Leurs Enfants Après Eux’ by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma, ‘The Quiet Son’ by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, ‘Vermiglio’ by Maura Delpero, ‘Sicilian Letters’ by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, ‘Love’ by Dag Johan Haugerud, ‘April’ by Dea Kulumbegashvili, ‘Maria’ by Pablo Larrain, ‘Trois Amies’ by Emmanuel Mouret, ‘Kill the Jockey’ by Luis Ortega, ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ by Todd Phillips, ‘I’m Still Here’ by Walter Salles, ‘Diva Futura’ by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, ‘Harvest’ by Athina Rachel Tsangari, ‘Youth – Homecoming’ by Wang Bing, and ‘Stranger Eyes’ by Yeo Siew Hua.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as directed by Tim Burton, kickstarts the film line-up. The closing film is L’Orto Americano, under the direction of Pupi Avati. Other notable movies include Il Tempo che ci Vuole by Francesca Comencini, Phantosmia by Lav Diaz, Maldoror steered by Fabrice du Welz, and Broken Rage by Takeshi Kitano. Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion, Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Cloud, and Finalement by Claude Lelouch are also in the list.
In the short film category, we have Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II by Marco Bellocchio and Allégorie Citadine, directed by the duo Alice Rohrwacher and JR. For non-fiction, we have titles like Why War by Amos Gitai, 2073 created by Asif Kapadia, and Apocalypse in the Tropics by Petra Costa. Also featured are One to One: John & Yoko by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards, and Separated handled by Errol Morris.
Others in the non-fiction category include Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 by Goran Hugo Olsson, Russians at War by Anastasia Trofimova, and TWST/Things We Said Today under the direction of Andrei Ujica. Among others, we have Songs of Slow Burning Earth by Olha Zhurba and Riefenstahl by Andres Veiel.
Sergio Rubini’s Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World directed by Peter Weir are among the special screenings. Beauty is not a Sin, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, is also in the list.
TV series include Alfonso Cuaron’s Disclaimer, The New Years by Rodrigo Sorogoyen del Amo and Sandra Romero, Families Like Ours directed by Thomas Vinterberg, and M – Il Figlio del Secolo by Joe Wright