Five Italian productions will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, running from August 27th to September 6th. Festival Director Alberto Barbera announced the contenders: Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Grace” (previously confirmed as the opening film), Leonardo Di Costanzo’s “Elisa,” Pietro Marcello’s “Duse,” Franco Maresco’s “Un film fatto per Bene,” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Sotto le nuvole.”
The international competition features 21 films in total. Highlights include Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” exploring a new nuclear threat; Guillermo del Toro’s highly anticipated “Frankenstein”; Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” reuniting him with Emma Stone; Jim Jarmusch’s episodic entry “Father Mother Sister Brother”; Park Chan-wook’s return two decades after “Lady Vengeance” with “No Other Choice”; and François Ozon’s adaptation of Camus’ “The Stranger” (“L’etranger”).
Julia Roberts is set to make her first-ever appearance on the Lido as the star of Luca Guadagnino’s out-of-competition film “After the Hunt.” Roberts plays Alma, a respected Ivy League professor defending a colleague accused of sexual misconduct by a student. Festival Director Barbera emphasized that presenting the film without its lead star “wouldn’t have made sense,” adding he hopes her Venice presence reflects her reported professionalism on set.
Roberts leads a dazzling parade of international stars confirmed for the festival. The list includes George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone, Jude Law, Oscar Isaac, Amanda Seyfried, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Laura Dern, Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, and Adam Sandler.
These stars feature prominently across competition films: Clooney, Dern, and Sandler star in Noah Baumbach’s dramedy “Jay Kelly”; Law portrays a rising Putin in Olivier Assayas’ “The Kremlin Wizard”; Blanchett, Adam Driver, and Charlotte Rampling appear in Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother”; Stone stars in Lanthimos’ “Bugonia”; Seyfried leads Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee”; Isaac and Jacob Elordi feature in del Toro’s “Frankenstein”; Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung star in Ildikó Enyedi’s “Silent Friend”; Elba and Ferguson tackle a nuclear crisis in Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite”; and Dwayne Johnson steps away from blockbusters for Benny Safdie’s biopic “The Smashing Machine” opposite Emily Blunt.
Outside the main competition, Al Pacino co-stars in two anticipated titles: Gus Van Sant’s thriller “Dead Man’s Wire” and Julian Schnabel’s ensemble piece “In the Hand of Dante.” The closing film, Cédric Jimenez’s “Chien 51,” features French stars Gilles Lellouche, Exarchopoulos, and Louis Garrel. Other notable entries include Chris Pine in Carolina Cavalli’s “The Abduction of Arabella” (Horizons section), Willem Dafoe in dual roles in Gaston Solnicki’s “The Souffleur” and Kent Jones’ “Late Fame,” and Noomi Rapace as an unconventional Mother Teresa in Teona Strugar Mitevska’s “Mother.”