Venice Film Festival Unveils Star-Studded Lineup for 72nd Edition
Kristen Stewart, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson are among the stars in movies coming to the world’s oldest major film festival.
The world’s oldest major film festival in Venice, Italy, will once again screen films from new and established directors, with 55 new films set for this year's 72nd edition.
Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Paolo Baratta unveiled this year's star-studded lineup Wednesday morning at the Westin Excelsior Rome hotel. It includes much-buzzed-about American films, a slew of Italian talent and various voices from world cinema.
In the competition section, a number of U.S. titles are part of the lineup, which Barbera called one of the most diverse in festival. Among U.S. directors, the competition features Laurie Anderson's return to directing with Heart of a Dog, a film about loss, and Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba as a warlord in the film about child soldiers in Africa, which Netflix bought global rights to for a reported $12 million.
Also in the competition, Duke Johnson and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman's animated film Anomalisa, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan, is not for kids. Centered around the crisis of a middle-aged man, the film was partially funded by Kickstarter.
Tom Hooper’s 1920s drama The Danish Girl is also among the awards season contenders in the Venice competition. It stars Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo a sex change after his wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) began painting him as a woman.
Drake Doremus' futurisitic love story Equals, starring Kristen Stewart, Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce, will also compete for Venice's Golden Lion award as will Canadian director Atom Egoyan's thriller Remember, starring Dean Norris and Christopher Plummer.
Marco Bellocchio comes to Venice with Sangue del mio sangue, Giuseppe Gaudino with Per amor vostro, Piero Messina with L'attesa starring Juliette Binoche, and Luca Guadagnino with A Bigger Splash starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson.
Other films in competition include Chinese director Zhao Liang's documentary Behemoth, Argentine director Pablo Trapero's The Clan, and Australian director Sue Brooks' Looking for Grace.
Chinese director Hu Guan's big production Mr. Six will close the festival in an out-of-competition screening. It focuses on the conflict between the values of new China and old China.
As previously announced, Baltasar Kormakur’s disaster epic Everest from Universal will open the festival out of competition. Shot at Rome’s Cinecitta Studios, Everest stars Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley and Robin Wright in the true-life story of climbers battling for their lives after a snow storm ravages the planet’s highest mountain.
Screening out of competition, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass from Warner Bros. stars Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in the true-life story of the infamous criminal who turned Mafia informant. The film also stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon and Dakota Johnson.
Another hotly anticipated fall release in an out-of-competition spot, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight is about the true story of how The Boston Globe revealed a massive cover-up of the child molestation scandal within the local Catholic archdiocese. It stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton.
Daniel Alfredson's Go With Me, starring Anthony Hopkins, Ray Liotta and Julia Stiles, is also among the out-of-competition fiction lineup. Documentaries including Amy Berg's Janis and Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's De Palma will also screen there.
Martin Scorsese's comedic short film The Audition, a promotional short for Melco-Crown's movie-themed resort and casino, starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will also screen out of competition.
The Horizons section represents films from Israel, Mexico, Brazil, France, Greece, Denmark, Iran and Indonesia, to name a few. American director Dito Montiel will screen Man Down, starring Shia LaBeouf, Kate Mara and Gary Oldman.
Alfonso Cuaron chairs the Venice festival's international jury alongside Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger, Pawel Pawlikowski, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Francesco Munzi, Lynne Ramsay, Emmanuel Carre, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Bernard Tavernier will receive a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.
The 72nd Venice International Film Festival takes place Sept. 2-12.
Here is the complete Venice lineup:
COMPETITION
Emin Alper Abluka (Frenzy)
Laurie Anderson Heart of a Dog
Marco Bellocchio Sangue del mio sangue
Sue Brooks Looking for Grace
Drake Doremus Equals
Atom Egoyan Remember
Cary Fukunaga Beasts of No Nation
Giuseppe M. Gaudino Per amor vostro
Xavier Giannoli Marguerite
Amos Gitai Rabin, the Last Day
Luca Guadagnino A Bigger Splash
Oliver Hermanus The Endless River
Tom Hooper The Danish Girl
Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson Anomalisa
Piero Messina L’attesa
Jerzy Skolimowski 11 minut (11 Minutes)
Aleksandr Sokurov Francofonia
Pablo Trapero El Clan
Christian Vincent L’hermine
Zhao Liang Behemoth
OUT OF COMPETITION
Baltasar Kormakur Everest (opening film)
Hu Guan Lao pao er (Mr Six) (closing film)
Daniel Alfredson Go with Me
Claudio Caligari Non essere cattivo
Scott Cooper Black Mass
Thomas McCarthy Spotlight
Martin Scorsese The Audition
Evgeny Afineevsky Winter on Fire
Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow De Palma
Amy Berg Janis
Sergei Loznitsa Sobytie (The Event)
Franco Maresco Gli uomini di questa città io non li conosco
Gianfranco Pannone L’esercito più piccolo del mondo
Tsai Ming-liang Na ri xiawu (Afternoon)
Frederick Wiseman In Jackson Heights
SPECIAL SCREENING OUT OF COMPETITION
Yann Arthus-Bertrand Human
HORIZONS
Merzak Allouache Madame Courage
Joko Anwar A Copy of My Mind
Alberto Caviglia Pecore in erba
Samuel Collardey Tempete
Brady Corbet The Childhood of a Leader
Renato De Maria Italian Gangster
Vahid Jalilvand Wednesday
Yaelle Kayam Mountain
Tobias Lindholm A War
Vetri Maaran Interrogation
Jake Mahaffy Free in Deed
Gabriel Mascaro Boi Neon
Dito Montiel Man Down
Hadar Morag Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?
Rodrigo Pla Un monstruo de mil cabezas
Anita Rocha Da Silveira Mate-me por favor
Nicolas Saada Taj Mahal
Yorgos Zois Interruption
