August may be a relatively quiet month for Hollywood glamour, but the Venice Film Festival is preparing to kick off the busy fall festival season in striking fashion.
A large number of stars are expected to walk the red carpet when the 83rd edition of the festival opens Wednesday on the Lido, including Noel and Liam Gallagher, Robert Pattinson, Rooney Mara, George Clooney, and Penelope Cruz. Some of the films screening there may go on to earn Academy Award nominations.
But the atmosphere feels a bit different this year. Hollywood stars and awards-hopeful films will still draw plenty of attention as they arrive by boat and step out on the docks in designer outfits, but a lineup that includes Pattinson playing “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen, Dakota Johnson as Marilyn Monroe, Guy Pearce as Robert Murdoch, and George Clooney playing himself, may end up shifting much of the conversation toward a man who probably won’t even be there: Elon Musk.
Clooney will receive a lifetime achievement award, as will actress Ellen Burstyn.
Arab Presence, From the Main Competition to the Financing Market
Arab filmmakers have a diverse presence at this year’s Venice festival, spanning the main competition, parallel sections, and development and financing programs.
In the main competition, Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy is presenting her feature film “Woman Unknown,” a Danish-Swedish-Latvian co-production, competing for the Golden Lion. Outside the competition, Palestinian director Ahmad Hasona is screening his documentary “Citizen Osama,” a Palestinian-French production, while Iraqi director Hilkot Mustafa is presenting “No Paradise If a Woman Kills You,” a co-production between Iraq, Norway, the UAE, and Sweden. In the Venice Spotlight program, Palestinian director Muayad Alayan is featuring “A Conversation with the Sea,” Lebanese director Rami Kodeih is presenting “Furious,” and Egyptian director Karim Kassem is showing “Ding.”
Arab films also feature in the “Orizzonti” competition, with Lebanese director Chaden Safieddine Tari’s short documentary “A Few Moments of Happiness,” Egyptian director Ashgan al-Hamidi’s “The Outsider,” and Tunisian director Kamel al-Aridi’s “Panic.”
Arab presence isn’t limited to films ready for screening — several projects are also part of support and development programs. In the “Final Cut” program for post-production films, Algerian director Sofia Djama is presenting “From Sunday to Thursday,” Moroccan director Alaeddine Al-Jem is showing “El Dorado, Taste of the South,” Jordanian director Bassel Ghandour is presenting “Occupational Hazards,” and Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi is showing “The Plague.”
In the Venice financing market, Moroccan director Ismail al-Iraqi is presenting the project “Sons of the Ghoula,” and Lebanese director Jessy Moussallem is showing “Voo Pijo” — reflecting an Arab presence that extends beyond the screen into development, production, and financing pathways.
Documentaries on Musk, Russia, and Gaza
Work on director Alex Gibney’s new documentary — running roughly four hours and focused on the world’s richest man — took nearly four years to complete.
Gibney, an Oscar winner, wasn’t initially sure he wanted to take on the project, but a close friend convinced him it could offer a compelling look at the nature of power in the 21st century — this was before the 2024 presidential campaign and before “DOGE” emerged.
When the documentary was announced, Musk described it on social media as “a hit piece” targeting him. Gibney responded by asking: “How would you know?”
Gibney told the Associated Press that he actually began the project holding some admiration for Musk — he even owned a Tesla and genuinely wanted to interview him for the film.
“In the end, he didn’t want to talk to me,” he added. “But once you start digging into the facts and following where they lead, for me it led to a place that turns the myth of Elon Musk as some kind of modern-day Leonardo da Vinci on its head. I think what the film reveals that’s new is that Musk isn’t an inventor — he’s a man who’s very good at convincing others.”
The filmmakers spoke to hundreds of people, both on the record and off, in order to build a broad portrait of the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Gibney said Musk isn’t, in his view, all that different from executives at Enron or from Elizabeth Holmes.
What surprised him most was how many people seemed afraid to appear on camera to talk about Musk — even some of his admirers wanted permission before agreeing to participate.
“I remember thinking: wow, for someone with this much size and power, that’s a pretty striking sign of weakness,” Gibney said.
Although the film deals with, in his words, “a dark and dangerous subject,” Gibney insists it also delivers “an entertaining ride.”
Russian Journalists in Exile
The same could be said of “My Undesirable Friends: Part Two – Exile,” in which Julia Loktev continues her sweeping portrait of independent Russian journalists following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“You see a group of young journalists, really very young, who suddenly had to leave their country within a matter of hours,” Loktev said. “They had options: stop reporting the truth about the war, which didn’t really feel like an option at all, go to prison, or leave the country so they could keep telling the truth.”
She added that the question for her was how long she should keep following these people, since the film spans four years, during which exile naturally turns into a state with no clear end.
As with the first installment, the second part runs about six hours, though she joked that she’s heard “the time flies while watching it.”
Gaza Present in the Competition
The conflict in Gaza will also have a strong presence through the documentary “Nasa,” added late to the main competition, co-made by two filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning “No Other Land.”
Unlike last year, there are no plans for large-scale protests, though the group “Venice for Palestine” has called on the festival to “suspend all agreements with entities and institutions linked to the Israeli government.”
The group has also demanded that the Palestinian flag be raised across the festival grounds.
Hollywood Watches the Awards Race From Venice
Part of Venice’s appeal lies in its potential influence on the Oscar race, as the festival usually manages to launch at least one or two films that go on to earn Best Picture nominations.
Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents in the 1970s, looks like one of the promising contenders, especially since McDonagh’s last two films both premiered in Venice before going on to earn award nominations.
Florian Zeller, director of “The Father,” returns with “Bunker,” a psychological thriller starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Danny Boyle explores a turning point in tabloid journalism history with “Ink.”
There’s also significant curiosity around Lance Oppenheim’s “Prime Time,” both for Robert Pattinson’s performance and for its take on reality TV culture in the early 2000s.
Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is presenting “Look Back,” which tells the story of two girls from a small town who dream of becoming manga artists.
Korean director Lee Chang-dong explores themes of work and freedom through a married couple in “Possible Love.”
Does Hollywood Still Need Festivals?
This year’s festival also arrives at a time when major Hollywood isn’t necessarily as reliant on the prestige international film festivals once offered.
Cannes lacked a major blockbuster this year, yet the industry went onto post one of its highest-grossing summer seasons ever. The current Best Picture Oscar winner, “One Battle After Another,” bypassed festivals entirely.
Venice may feature more Hollywood films than Cannes did, but recent years have sometimes seen early, harsh judgments passed on the fate of certain awards-hopeful films, such as “After the Hunt” and “The Smashing Machine,” and even on big commercial films like “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
For that reason, this year’s festival feels a bit quieter, at least on paper.
Venice Falls Short Again on Representing Women Directors
Then there’s the question of women — specifically, women working behind the camera. Only one woman director features in the main competition this year: Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy.
The same thing happened in 2018, prompting the festival that year to sign a pledge that at least half of the films in competitionwould be directed by women by 2020 — a target that still hasn’t been met.
The irony is heightened by the fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal is chairing the jury this year. Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter,” won the Best Screenplay award at Venice in 2021.
The jury also includes director Kaouther Ben Hania, whose film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” won the Silver Lion last year, when the competition featured six films directed by women.
Only seven women directors have ever won the Golden Lion in the festival’s history, among them Laura Poitras for “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.” Poitras returns this year with a short film co-directed with Rachel Lauren Muller, focused on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis. The film is titled “Their Hair,” and screens as part of the “Venice Open” section, which also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film about Marilyn Monroe, “Flesh Impact.”
Greater Women’s Presence Outside the Main Competition
Outside the main competition, there are also documentaries directed by Julia Loktev, Barbara Kopple, and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. The “Orizzonti” sections also include a number of other works by women, including a short film by actress Saoirse Ronan.
The “Venice Days” section opens Wednesday with Hungarian director Lili Horvat’s “My Notes on Mars,” her first English-language film. The film tells the story of a married couple, played by Robert Friend and Mackenzie Davis, whose relationship faces a crisis when the wife, a scientist, mysteriously disappears — only to reappear on the day of her own memorial service.
“The story champions great love,” Horvat said, “but at the same time, it shows the eternal limits of our ability to truly know the person we love.”
“Venice Days” is an independent section held alongside the main festival, and works directed by women make up more than half of its selections this year, including several notable short films by directors such as Mona Fastvold and Claire Denis.
“It’s nice to be in a progressive section,” Horvat said.
Credit: Source link