A great festival is built from the elements that are available ‘here and now’, from what emerges and is selected. Choices are the base of everything. If someone were to look back a few months ago and examine the films that could have been in Venice but weren’t selected, they would realize just how complex and thoughtful our selection process is. These choices are the core of our work, the backbone of our design, and our hallmark. The choices are obviously not made only by taking into account famous names like Almodóvar, Todd Phillips, or Walter Salles, but by carefully watching the film and evaluating its potential, regardless of the subject matter. The topic is never an a priori conditioning factor; rather, it serves as a starting point. Once a particular film is chosen, the next step is to decide where it fits best, aiming to find the section that will best showcase its ideas. Given the limited number of titles we can select for competition here in Venice, quality must be the main criterion, even above the cast, the director, or the media appeal of a work. In short, the movies you will find in Competition are simply the 21 best films that could be nominated, we are more than confident of that.
The Festival’s opening is dedicated to Sigourney Weaver, who throughout her career has alternated great films for the public with auteur films addressing a smaller audience but absolutely meaningful. Original and personal works that directors have entrusted to her, knowing that she could balance the commercial soul of a film with the artistic one. The great films for the public have guaranteed her visibility and credibility that later allowed her to help first-time directors who had something of their own to say. According to me she is a deserving figure to be awarded with our prestigious Lion, the protagonist of a career that in the mechanism of industrial cinema had at heart the preservation of the most original and subjective authorship. I believe that the research carried out this year to identify the right profiles for the Lions for Lifetime Achievement is exactly the same that has always characterized the deep identity of the Venice Film Festival.
The already strained relationship between Martha (Swinton) and her daughter shatters due to a misunderstanding that will permanently separate the two women. Ingrid (Moore), a bestselling author, witnesses this painful family feud. During a stay in a house surrounded by nature ...
Fleeing a drug raid in New Orleans, Lee finds refuge in a decaying 1940s Mexico City. In what is known as the “crime capital of the world,” Lee navigates increasingly sordid locales populated by society’s outcasts. Enveloped by the coils of addiction, he becomes infatuat...
Brazil, 1971. In a country under the tight grip of military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva’s life, along with that of her five children, changes dramatically following the disappearance of her husband, former Brazilian Labor Party deputy Rubens Paiva. Adapted from the memoir...
Two years after killing Murray Franklin on live television and riding the wave of a city in full-blown civil war, Arthur Fleck is confined to the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, still consumed by his delusions. There, he meets the love of his life, Harleen Frances Qui...
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