Directors Cary Fukunaga, Drake Doremus, Tom Hooper among those with films being showcased
By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) --This year's Venice Film Festival will include Kristen Stewart in a sci-fi romance, Idris Elba at war and a thriller starring Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, as well as potentially awards-worthy performances from Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Organizers announced a 21-strong competition lineup Wednesday for the festival, which takes over the Italian maritime city's Lido island for 11 days in September.
It includes Drake Doremus' futuristic "Equals," with Stewart and Nicholas Hoult; Luca Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash," with Swinton, Johnson and Ralph Fiennes; and Cary Fukunaga's African child-soldier story "Beasts of No Nation," starring Elba.
Competition for the top Golden Lion prize also includes Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's animated feature "Anomalisa"; musician Laurie Anderson's "Heart of a Dog"; and "The Danish Girl," from "The King's Speech" director Tom Hooper, which stars 2014 Oscar-winner Redmayne as a transgender woman in the 1920s.
Also among the contenders: "Rabin, The Last Day," Amos Gitai's depiction of the 1995 assassination of Israeli leader Yitzakh Rabin; South African director Oliver Hermanus' crime drama "The Endless River"; Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski's "11 Minutes," which follows several characters over the titular timeframe; and Argentine director Pablo Trapero's family crime drama "The Clan."
There are also new films from Canada's Atom Egoyan ("Remember," a Nazi-hunting thriller starring Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau), Russia's Aleksandr Sokurov (the Paris-set "Francofonia") and Italy's Marco Bellocchio (vampire-themed "Blood of My Blood").
Out-of-competition entries – which are not in the running for festival prizes but could be Academy Awards contenders – include Scott Cooper's "Black Mass," starring Depp as Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, and Thomas McCarthy's "Spotlight," which features Michael Keaton as the editor of a Boston Globe team investigating clerical sex abuse.
Martin Scorsese will bring "The Audition," a short starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, while documentaries include Amy Berg's Janis Joplin biopic "Janis."
The 72nd Venice festival opens Sept. 2 with the world premiere of Baltasar Kormakur's mountain drama "Everest," starring Gyllenhaal and Robin Wright. It runs to Sept. 12, when a jury led by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron will award the Golden Lion for best film and other prizes.
Venice vies as an awards-season springboard with the overlapping Toronto Film Festival, which this year runs Sept. 10-20. Several titles, including "Black Mass" and "The Danish Girl," play at both events.
“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