The Venice Film Festival has just announced its lineup for the 79th edition. The 11-day event, which will begins its roll on the Lido (off Venice mainland) on August 31, has made a very strong statement against Iran’s authoritarian regime, which recently sent its star director, Jafar Panahi, to prison for six years.
The Festival has picked four Iranian movies, including Panahi’s latest work, No Bears. This will play in the top Competition slot.
No Bears was shot – like any of his recent films – in utmost secrecy, because he had been banned from making movies for 20 years.
His Taxi, shot in a hush-hush manner, won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2015, and Three Faces took the Screenplay award at Cannes in 2018.
Venice has also chosen Vahid Jalilvand’s Beyond the Wall, which is the story of a blind man and how his life goes into a spin after a woman enters his world. This is in Competition as well.
Arian Vazirdaftari’s Without Her, in the Horizons Extra side bar, follows Roya. She helps a woman who seems to have lost her memory.
The fourth title is World War III by director Houman Seyedi, which will premiere in Horizons. No details are forthcoming here.
These entries are definite to ignite a hot debate at Venice, conveying as they do a strong condemnation of Teheran’s oppressive policies towards the country’s film fraternity.
The other talking point at Venice 2022 will be Netflix, which has managed to get in several movies.
After bowing three films on the Lido in 2021 with The Power of the Dog, The Hand of God and The Lost Daughter, the streamer has now reaffirmed its commitment to the Festival as a major launchpad for its awards-targeted releases. And this most specifically include the Oscars.
Apart from the opening-night gala, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, based on Don DeLillo’s popular novel, Netflix will showcase Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, a biopic of Marilyn Monroe, who died early in her 30s after an overdose of sleeping pills. The fast-rising star, Ana de Armas, (last seen in The Gray Man) will headline Blonde – as the Hollywood icon who got a raw deal from men.
Then there’s another hugely buzzy title in Bardo, or to give it its full name, Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), the long-awaited next feature from Alejandro González Iñárritu, arriving some six years after his Oscar-winning hit The Revenant.
Finally, there’s Athena from French director Romain Gavrais, son of Costa Gavrais, a La Haine-sounding drama about youths clashing with policemen in France
All the Netflix titles will be competing for the Golden Lion.
In addition, Netflix will also have a six-episode series, Copenhagen, by Nicolas Winding Refn, who will appear on the Lido for the first time after 2009 – when he screened Valhalla Rising. Copenhagen follows a woman as she travels through the city’s seedy underbelly.
Here is the full list of what will be showcased at the Festival:
COMPETITION
“White Noise,” Noah Baumbach (U.S.) – Opening Film
“Il Signore Delle Formiche,” Gianni Amelio (Italy)
“The Whale,” Darren Aronofsky (U.S.)
“L’Immensità,” Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
“Saint Omer,” Alice Diop (France)
“Blonde,” Andrew Dominik (U.S.)
“TÁR,” Todd Field (U.S.)
“Love Life,” Kôji Fukada (Japan, France)
“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Mexico)
“Athena,” Romain Gavras (France)
“Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino (U.S.)
“The Eternal Daughter,” Joanna Hogg (U.K.)
“Beyond The Wall,” Vahid Jalilvand (Iran)
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh (U.K., U.S.)
“Argentina, 1985,” Santiago Mitre (Argentina, U.S.)
“Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy)
“Monica,” Andrea Pallaoro (Italy)
“No Bears,” Jafar Panahi (Iran)
“All The Beauty and The Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras (U.S.)
“A Couple,” Frederick Wiseman (U.S.)
“The Son,” Florian Zeller (U.K.)
“Our Ties,” Roschdy Zem (France)
“Other People’s Children,” Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Fiction
“The Hanging Sun,” Francesco Carrozzini (Italy) – Closing Film
“When The Waves Are Gone,” Lav Diaz (Philippines, France, Portugal, Denmark)
“Living,” Oliver Hermanus (U.K.)
“Dead For a Dollar,” Walter Hill (U.S.)
“Call Of God,” Kim Ki-duk (Estonia, Kirighistan, Lettonia)
“Dreamin’ Wild,” Bill Pohlad (U.S.)
“Master Gardener,” Paul Schrader (U.S.)
“Siccitá,” Paolo Virzì (Italy)
“Pearl,” Ti West (U.S.)
“Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Non-Fiction
“Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom,” Evgeny Afineevsky (Ukraine, U.K., U.S.)
“The Matchmaker,” Benedetta Argentieri (Italy)
“Gli Ultimi Giorni Dell’Umanità,” Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo (Italy)
“A Compassionate Spy,” Steve James (U.S.)
“Music For Black Pigeons,” Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed (Denmark)
“The Kiev Trial,” Sergei Loznitsa (The Netherlands, Ukraine)
“In Viaggio,” Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
“Bobi Wine Ghetto President,” Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo (Uganda, U.K., U.S.)
“Nuclear,” Oliver Stone (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Series
“The Kingdom Exodus” (Episodes 1-5), Lars Von Trier (Denmark)
“Copenhagen Cowboy” (Episodes 1-6), Nicholas Winding Refn (Denmark)
HORIZONS
“Princess,” Roberto De Paolis (Italy) – Opening Film
“Victim,” Michal Blasko (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany)
“On The Fringe,” Juan Diego Botto (Spain)
“Trenque Lauquen,” Laura Citarella (Argentina, Germany)
“Vera,” Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)
“Innocence,” Guy Davidi (Denmark, Israel, Finland, Iceland) – Documentary
“Blanquita,” Fernando Guzzoni (Chile, Mexico)
“For My Country,” Rachid Hami (France, Taiwan)
“A Man,” Key Ishikawa (Japan)
“Bread and Salt,” Damian Kocur (Poland)
“Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” Antonio Lukich (Ukraine)
“Ti Mangio il Cuore,” Pippo Mezzapesa (Italy)
“To The North,” Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic)
“Autobiography,” Makbul Mubarak (France, Germany, Qatar)
“The Sitting Duck,” Jean-Paul Salomé (France)
“World War III,” Houman Seyiedi (Iran)
“The Happiest Man in the World,” Teona Strugar Mitevska (Bosnia, Belgium, Denmark)
“The Bride,” Sergio Trefaut (Portugal)
HORIZONS EXTRA
“Origin of Evil,” Sébastien Marnier
“Hanging Gardens,” Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
“Amanda,” Carolina Cavalli
“Red Shoes,” Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser
“Nezouh,” Soudade Kaadan
“Notte Fantasma,” Fulvio Risuleo
“Without Her,” Arian Vazirdaftari
“Valeria Is Getting Married,” Michael Vinik
“Goliath,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov
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