The Venice Film Festival kicks off the fall fest season Wednesday and moves awards season into another gear. These days, Cannes has become the
The Venice Film Festival kicks off the fall fest season Wednesday and moves awards season into another gear.
These days, Cannes has become the bona fide start of awards season, and there are a handful of huge Q4 movies dodging festivals all together, but this time of year remains when most of the studios show their hands.
Among talent with recent movies premiering on the Lido are George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Idris Elba, Jacob Elordi, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Tony Leung, Oscar Isaac, Andrew Garfield, Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, Alan Ritchson, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Carmen Maura, Adam Sandler, Tony Servillo, Jude Law, Amanda Seyfried and Charli XCX.
As we’ve reported, it’s also set to be a politically charged event with protests planned against Israel’s war in Gaza and movies on the same subject, as well as Russia-Ukraine, and biopics of Vladimir Putin and Mother Teresa.
Below, we spotlight five burning questions as the festival gets underway.
Netflix Back On The Lido, And Back With A Bang?
Oscar Isaac in Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’
Netflix
After a relatively peaceful Venice 2024 for the streaming leader, Netflix is back at the festival with a buzzy contingent including Clooney starrer Jay Kelly, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. What to expect from these heavyweights? By all accounts, Frankenstein is a big-screen spectacle and Jacob Elordi’s star could be set to rise even further once the movie is seen. Could Clooney return to the awards fray with his turn as a celebrated movie star questioning his life choices? Hollywood loves Hollywood (and by all accounts there are fun turns by Adam Sandler as the manager and Laura Dern as the publicist), so the subject could prove winning. And then there’s Bigelow’s seeming return to Zero Dark Thirty terrain with an ensemble piece about an impending missile strike on America. We hear the directing is typically resilient. The 2024 awards season started so promisingly for Netflix but descended into the stuff of studio nightmare. Venice offers the chance for a bold statement from the streamer which is still in search of that elusive Best Picture winner, something Venice hasn’t known since 2020 when it shared Nomadland‘s world premiere with Toronto and Telluride.
Will A24’s Big Bets Pay Off?
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in ‘The Smashing Machine‘
A24
As we’ve reported, The Smashing Machine and December release Marty Supreme represent an evolution for U.S. studio A24 as it looks to take bigger and bigger swings. The movies are pretty much the studio’s biggest budgets to date, both comfortably $70 million. The genre and indie specialists are getting a taste for bigger-canvas projects, as evidenced by their work with Alex Garland on an Elden Ring project. With The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme, they’re also moving into the type of territory that more customary studios have backed away from in recent years: big-budget prestige-play drama (and dramedy in the case of the latter). Will the strategy pay off? Time will tell. The word is mighty on Blunt and Johnson’s performances in Smashing Machine; fest chief Alberto Barbera called them “fantastic.” In other Venice selections, we’ve also heard very mighty early acting category buzz for Jesse Plemons in Bugonia, while Barbera has been among those to sing the praises of Roberts in After the Hunt, and Servillo is understood to be typically on point in La Grazia.
Can The Brutalist Team Replicate Last Year’s Success?
Amanda Seyfried in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’
Oscar darling and box office hit The Brutalist was arguably the film that got the most propulsion this time last year following its Venice bow. The same husband-and-wife team, filmmakers Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, return with The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Seyfried as the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. This time Fastvold takes on directing duties and Corbet is producer and co-writer with his wife. We hear good buzz about the drama and its score, which is also a re-team with The Brutalist Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg. Venice has previously launched Fastvold’s The World to Come and Corbet’s The Childhood of a Leader. Another critical hit and awards darling would cement the duo as filmmaking heavyweights.
Will ‘The Voice Of Hind Rajab‘ Ignite Passions, Voters & A U.S. Buyer?
‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’
Mime Films, Tanit Films
There are few movies more likely to ignite passions and emotions on the Lido than The Voice of Hind Rajab. The drama reconstructs the harrowing events surrounding the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her four cousins, her aunt and uncle, and the two paramedics who came to her rescue, after their car came under fire as they tried to flee Gaza City in January 2024. As we reported this morning, the film has quietly amassed some A-list supporters including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Alfonso Cuarón. Palestinian-themed movies have been given the cool shoulder by buyers in the U.S., but Academy voters were undeterred by politics when crowning No Other Land its Outstanding Documentary Feature earlier this year. Will a U.S. buyer take the plunge? We know some huge companies have weighed up bids but we know anxiety remains about unfair backlash. The Academy pedigree is mighty, with director Kaouther Ben Hania’s films twice scoring nominations before. In fact it’s another very mighty year for North African and Middle East films with Venice also launching Maryam Touzani’s Calle Málaga, which is expected to be Morocco’s Oscar entry and is said to feature an impressive and potentially awards-y turn from Spanish actress Carmen Maura.
Brat or Splat? Charli XCX Movie Career Comes Into Focus
Charli XCX at the 2025 Grammys
Getty
Pop star Charli XCX has been one of the buzziest names on casting lists in the past 12 months. The brat sensation has been courted and mulled over by studios and independents alike. But can she act? We should have a better idea in coming months when the Brit has a whole host of movies due to launch including 100 Nights of Hero which debuts on the Lido, as well as Sacrifice, The Gallerist, I Want Your Sex, Erupcja, The Moment and Faces of Death. We hear it’s a smallish role in 100 Nights of Hero, but if this sudden spate of acting roles goes well, she may soon follow in the footsteps of another pop queen-turned-screen success in Lady Gaga, who wowed on the the Lido back in 2018 with A Star Is Born.
COMMENTS