This year's Venice Film Festival will include a stylish thriller from Tom Ford, a sci-fi drama with Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams and a star turn from Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Organizers of the world's oldest film festival announced a 20-strong competition lineup Thursday that includes fashion designer Ford's "Nocturnal Animals," with Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams, Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi feature "Arrival" and Pablo Larrain's biopic of the former U.S. first lady, "Jackie."
Venice is an important awards-season springboard – along with the overlapping Toronto Film Festival – and gave Academy Award best-picture winner "Spotlight" its world premiere last year.
Potential awards contenders in Venice this year include U.S. filmmaker Derek Cianfrance's "The Light Between Oceans" – a domestic drama set in a remote lighthouse starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander – and Dutch director Martin Koolhoven's thriller "Brimstone," with Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce.
Films competing for the festival's coveted Golden Lion prize also include American auteur Terrence Malick's documentary "Voyage of Time" and new films from cinema heavyweights including France's Francois Ozon ("Frantz"), Germany's Wim Wenders ("The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez"), Serbia's Emir Kusturica ("On the Milky Road") and Russia's Andrei Konchalovsky ("Paradise").
Other contenders include "The Bad Batch," a cannibal love story starring Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves from Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour, and "La Region Salvaje" ("The Untamed") by hard-hitting Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante.
Also screening at the festival, although not in prize competition, is Mel Gibson's World War II drama "Hacksaw Ridge." The story of a pacifist army medic, it's Gibson's first film as a director since 2006, the year he launched an anti-Semitic tirade during a drunk-driving arrest.
The 73rd Venice festival opens Aug. 31 on the maritime city's Lido island with the world premiere of Damien Chazelle's musical romance "La La Land," with singing, dancing performances from Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
The festival closes Sept. 10 with Antoine Fuqua's remake of the classic Western, "The Magnificent Seven," starring Denzel Washington.
The winner of the Golden Lion and other prizes will be decided by a jury led by "American Beauty" director Sam Mendes.
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More