Venice Int’l Film Festival downsizes for September gala
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THE American frontier drama “The World to Come,” the Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren comedy/drama “The Duke,” Gia Coppola’s “Mainstream” and the Shia LaBeouf and Vanessa Kirby drama “Pieces of a Woman” are among the films set to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September, the first major event of its kind since the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of large gatherings worldwide.
The selections for the 77th edition, taking place on September 2 on the Venice Lido, are more global and less star-studded Hollywood features than in years past as a result of the pandemic, said festival director Alberto Barbera.
“This year, to borrow Bob Dylan’s words, the program contains multitudes of movies, of genres, of points of view,” Barbera said. “There will be auteur films, comedies, documentaries, horror flicks, gangster movies and so on.”
Other films premiering at the festival include Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland;” Nicole Garcia’s “Lovers” with Stacy Martin; Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx” with Romola Garai as Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor; and Mona Fastvold’s “The World to Come” about two women who forge a connection in isolation in the mid-19th century. Based on Jim Shepard’s short story, it also stars Kirby, best known for playing Princess Margaret in “The Crown,” Katherine Waterston and Casey Affleck.
Barbera noted almost half of this year’s selections are directed by women, significant because the festival has had notoriously poor gender parity in the past.
“The films were selected exclusively on the basis of their quality and not as a result of gender protocols,” Barbera said. “The number of female directors whose films were selected is unprecedented, which we hope augurs well for a future free of any sort of prejudice and discrimination.”
Festival nominees hail from Japan (Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Wife of a Spy”), Russia (Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades”), Iran (Majid Majidi’s “Sun Child”), Poland (Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s “Never Gonna Snow Again”) and Israel (Amos Gitai’s “Laila in Haifa”).
Cate Blanchett will preside over the main jury alongside filmmakers Joanna Hogg, Veronika Franz, Christian Petzold and Cristi Puiu, actor Ludivine Sagnier and writer Nicola Lagioia. The jury will award the coveted Golden Lion, awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”
Out-of-competition selections include Luca Guadagnino’s documentary about Salvatore Ferragamo “The Shoemaker of Dreams,” Nathan Grossman’s “Greta” about climate activist Greta Thunberg, and Alex Gibney’s “Crazy, Not Insane,” about a psychiatrist who works with serial killers like Ted Bundy.
Gia Coppola’s “Mainstream” with Andrew Garfield and Maya Hawke, will debut in the Horizons category that shines a light on newcomers.
The festival will implement various modifications due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19, including a slightly slimmed down official competition, a reduced number of sections and the addition of two outdoor screening venues. Organizers said they will follow safety measures established by local authorities.
“Until a short while ago, even the certainty of holding the late summer festival was anything but a given,” Barbera said.
And it will be a decidedly different festival than in the past, where A-List stars like Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga dressed to the nines for red carpet premieres. Netflix, which had a major presence last year with “Marriage Story,” “The Laundromat” and “The King,” will also be absent this year.
“A few spectacular movies will be missing, blocked by the lockdown that still affects programming of the most awaited Hollywood releases,” Barbera said. “A few cast members of the invited movies won’t be able to attend because of the ongoing limitations on intercontinental travel.”
Indeed, most of this year’s attendees will likely be European due to continuing travel restrictions and quarantine requirements — Italy was an early pandemic epicenter.
But the show will go on.
“The decision to hold the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival is like a sign of confidence in — and concrete support of — the world of film and the audiovisual industry,” Barbera said.
The festival will open with an Italian film for the first time in more than a decade. The marital drama “The Ties,” directed by Daniele Luchetti and starring Alba Rohrwacher, will premiere on September 2 and run through September 12.
COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the overall film-festival circuit, a major launching pad not only for award contenders but also for films looking for buzz and distribution. Cannes and Telluride were cancelled while others like Venice and the Toronto International Film Festival have had to scale back wherever possible. Some festivals have even formed alliances to benefit all films instead of fighting for exclusive, high-profile premieres.
Case in point, Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand, will premiere at all the major fall film festivals, starting from Venice.
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