The 81st Venice Film Festival opens this Wednesday. Many Hollywood stars will walk the red carpet, while highly anticipated films will be presented for the occasion.
Venice is adorned with the colors of cinema for eleven days. From August 28 to September 7, the city hosts its festival of the seventh art, La Mostra de Venise. For this new edition, many stars are expected: Angelina Jolie (Maria), Brad Pitt and George Clooney (Wolfs), Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Madness for Two), Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice), Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton (The room next door), Raphaël Quenard, Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier (Their children after them), Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)Daniel Craig (Queer), Jude Law (The Order) or even Camille Cottin (Three friends) and Nicole Kidman (Babygirl).
The Venice Film Festival, also known as the Venice International Film Festival, is an international film festival that takes place on the Lido di Venezia, more specifically at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, every year in early September. The 2024 edition can be followed on Canal+, which will broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies at 6:55 pm, while a program will be offered every weekday at 7:40 pm and 8:50 pm.
The event has existed since 1982 and was created as part of the organization of the cultural festival of contemporary art of the Venice Biennale. Each year, the most prestigious award given is the Golden Lion, which rewards the Best Film of the selection, and which can be compared to the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival or the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Venice Film Festival is an Italian film festival that rewards the best of the international seventh art every year. It is also an opportunity to discover in preview some of the most anticipated films of the end of the year, whether they are arthouse films or blockbusters. The Venice Film Festival takes place every year at the end of the summer. The 2024 edition begins on August 28 and ends and ended on September 7 with the announcement of the complete prize list.
- The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodovar)
- Battlefield (Gianni Amelio)
- Their children after them (Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma)
- The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
- Play with fire (Delphine and Muriel Coulin)
- Vermiglio (Maura Delpero)
- Sicilian Letters (Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza)
- Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
- Kjaerlight (Dag Johan Haugerud)
- April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
- The Order (Justin Kurzel)
- Maria (Pablo Larain)
- Three Friends (Emmanuel Mouret)
- Kill the Jockey (Luis Ortega)
- Joker: Madness for Two (Todd Phillips)
- Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
- I am Still Here (Walter Salles)
- Diva Futura (Giulia Louise Steigerwalt)
- Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
- Youth (Homecoming) (Wang Bing)
- Stranger Eyes (Yeo Siew-hua)
Among the films presented out of competition in 2024, we note the screenings of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by Tim Burton for the opening, Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 by Kevin Costner or even Broken Rage by Takeshi Kitano, Eventually by Claude Lelouch and Wolfs by Jon Watts. Australian director Peter Weir will receive an honorary Golden Lion, as will American actress Sigourney Weaver.
The Venice Film Festival takes place over a period of ten days. The event traditionally begins with a first screening at 4:00 pm on the first day of the festival, before the opening film is screened early in the evening on the same day. The event closes about ten days later with the announcement of the winners. Find the full Venice Film Festival programme on the official festival website.
As is the case for the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival rewards the favorite films of a jury composed of professionals of the seventh international art. The jury of the 2024 festival is chaired by the French actress Isabelle Huppert. In order to establish the prize list, she is supported by the director and screenwriter James Gray (The night belongs to us, The lost city of Z), British director and screenwriter Andrew Haigh (Without ever knowing us), Polish director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Brazilian director and screenwriter Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius, Bacurau), the Mauritanian director and screenwriter Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu), Italian director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), German director and screenwriter Julia von Heinz and Chinese actress Zhank Ziyi (Tiger and Dragon).
- Golden Lion: “Poor Creatures” by Yórgos Lánthimos
- Silver Lion / Grand Jury Prize : “Aku wa sonzai shinai” by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
- Silver Lion for Best Director : Matteo Garrone for “I, Captain”
- Volpi Cup for best female performance : Cailee Spaeny for “Priscilla”
- Cut Volpi for Best Male Performance: Peter Sarsgaard for “Memory”
- Best Screenplay Award: Guillermo Calderón and Pablo Larraín for “El Conde”
- Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Newcomer: Seydou Sarr for “Me, Captain”
- Special Jury Prize : “Zielona granica” by Agnieszka Holland
It is possible to go to the Venice Film Festival as a spectator. Note that film professionals, but also the press, can request accreditations to attend the screenings for free. The public can buy tickets to attend the screenings of certain awards. Prices vary between 7 and 50 euros per screening depending on the theaters and times. It is also possible to subscribe to a “per theater” subscription: this can vary from 35 to 1600 euros depending on the time, the theater or the location in the theater. Find all the information concerning registrations and the purchase of tickets for the Venice Film Festival on the official website of the festival.