Venice’s program boasts stars

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Venices program boasts stars

While we don’t know if the stars heading to Venice Film Festival this year will have to pay a tourist tax, we do know their names and their promising new films, as the program for the 81st Venice Film Festival was announced today.

Jenna Ortega and Tim Burton open Venice 2024

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will open the traditional film festival. For the return of Michael Keaton’s bio-exorcist, Burton was able to win over original stars such as Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, while Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega is a new addition. The world premiere will take place on August 26th at the Lido.

Joker 2 to repeat Triumph

The Beetlejuice sequel is running out of competition, but the competition for the main prize – the Golden Lion – is also impressive. Leading the pack is another Hollywood sequel: Joker 2: Folie à deux with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady GagaThe first part already celebrated its premiere in the lagoon city in 2019 and was somewhat surprisingly awarded the Golden Lion. Can the triumph be repeated?

New films from Daniel Craig, Angelina Jolie and more in the program

Also in the competition is Former James Bond Daniel Craig, who is now finally freeing himself from the 007 assignments. Four years after leaving Bond and two years after his last film, he will be playing Queer by Challengers director Luca Guadagnino take a completely different genre direction. The literary adaptation is based on a novel by William S. Burroughs and is about an American in Mexico in the 1940s who develops a fascination for a drug-addicted marine. Drew Starkey from the Netflix hit Outer Banks plays the object of desire.

This year’s Lions competition also includes Angelina Jolie’s first feature film since 2021. She plays opera legend Maria Callas for Maria. Pedro Almodóvar also presents his new film (with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton!), Adrien Brody takes on the lead role in Brady Corbet’s biopic The Brutalist and Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn lures Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas in front of the camera for the erotic thriller Babygirl.

In view of this selection, Apple TV+’s major project Wolfs almost falls behind. The action comedy reunites the Ocean’s Eleven duo George Clooney and Brad Pitt for a film. Wolfs is running out of competition in Venice.

The program of the Venice Film Festival 2024

The films in the international competition compete for the festival’s major prizes, most notably the Golden Lion for best film.

Competition

  • The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodovar
  • Campo di Battaglia by Gianni Amelio
  • Leurs Enfants Après Eux by Ludovic Bouckherma, Zoran Boukherma
  • The Brutalist by Brady Corbet
  • The Quiet Son Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
  • Vermiglio by Maura Delpero
  • Sicilian Letters by Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
  • Queer by Luca Guadagnino
  • Love by Dag Johan Haugerud
  • April by Dea Kulumbegashvili
  • The Order by Justin Kurzel
  • Mary by Pablo Larrain
  • Trois Amies by Emmanuel Mouret
  • Kill the Jockey by Luis Ortega
  • Joker: Folie à Deux by Todd Phillips
  • Babygirl by Halina Reijn
  • I’m Still Here by Walter Salles
  • Diva Futura by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt
  • Harvest by Athina Rachel Tsangari
  • Youth – Homecoming by Wang Bing
  • Stranger Eyes by Yeo Siew Hua

    • Out of competition – fiction

    The films and series outside the competition get a big stage for the premiere, but without any hope of winning Lion Gold.

  • Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by Tim Burton (opening film)
  • L’Orto Americano by Pupi Avati (graduation film)
  • Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole by Francesca Comencini
  • Phantosmia by Lav Diaz
  • Maldoror by Fabrice Du Welz
  • Broken Rage by Takeshi Kitano
  • Baby Invasion by Harmony Korine
  • Cloud by Kurosawa Kiyoshi
  • Finale by Claude Lelouch
  • Wolves by Jon Watts
  • Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II by Marco Bellocchio
  • Allégorie Citadine by Alice Rohrwacher, JR

    • Out of competition – Documentation

  • Apocalypse in the Tropics by Petra Costa
  • Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari by Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti
  • Why War by Amos Gitai
  • 2073 by Asif Kapadia
  • One to One: John & Yoko by Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice Edwards
  • Separated by Errol Morris
  • Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 by Göran Hugo Olsson
  • Russians at War by Anastasia Trofimova
  • Twst/Things We Said Today by Andrei Ujica
  • Songs of Slow Burning Earth by Olha Zhurba
  • Riefenstahl by Andres Veiel

    • Out of competition – Series

  • Disclaimer by Alfonso Cuaron
  • The New Years by Rodrigo Sorogoyen Del Amo, Sandra Romero, David Martín De Los Santos
  • Families Like Ours by Thomas Vinterberg
  • M: Son of the Century by Joe Wright

    • Out of Competition – Special Screenings

  • Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinit (Parts 1 and 2) by Sergio Rubini
  • Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World by Peter Weir (2003)
  • Beauty Is Not a Sin by Nicolas Winding Refn

    • Horizons

    Orizoonti is a subsection with its own jury (this time chaired by Debra Granik) that focuses on debut films and new trends in filmmaking.

  • Nonostante by Valerio Mastandrea (opening film)
  • Quiet Life by Alexandros Avranas
  • Mon Inseparable by Anne-Sophie Bailly
  • Aïcha by Mehdi Barsaoui
  • Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti
  • Family by Francesco Costabile
  • One of Those Days When Hemme Dies by Murat Firatoglu
  • Familiar Touch by Sarah Friedland
  • Marco by Jon Garraño, Aitor Arregi
  • Carissa by Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar
  • Wishing on a Star by Péter Kerekes
  • Mistress Dispeller by Elizabeth Lo
  • The New Year That Never Came by Bogdan Muresanu
  • Pooja sir by Deepak Rauniyar
  • Of Dogs and Men by Dani Rosenberg
  • Pavements by Alex Ross Perry
  • Happy ending of Neo Sora
  • L’Attachment by Carine Tardieu
  • Diciannove by Giovanni Tortorici

    • Orizzonti Extra

  • September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum
  • Vittoria by Alessandro Cassignoli, Casey Kauffman
  • Le Mohican by Frédéric Farrucci
  • Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo by Khaled Mansour
  • La Storia Del Frank e Della Nina by Paola Randi
  • The Witness by Nader Saeivar
  • After Party by Vojtech Strakaty
  • Edge of Night by Türker Süer
  • King Ivory by John Swab

    • The most important facts about the festival in Venice

  • The 81st Venice International Film Festival will take place this year from 28 August to 7 September in the lagoon city.
  • The French actress Isabelle Huppert (Madame Sidonie in Japan) is this time the chair of the jury that will decide on the award in the international competition.
  • Huppert will be joined by directors James Gray (Ad Astra), Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers), Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau), Abderrahmane Sissako (Bamako), Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), actress Zhang Ziyi and German director Julia von Heinz (And Tomorrow the Whole World) as members of the jury.

    • Moviepilot will again report from the Lido this year and provide daily first impressions of the films in the program.

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