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‘Wild Horse Nine’
Florian Zeller’s thriller Bunker, Martin McDonagh’s black comedy Wild Horse Nine and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Loveare among the films set to world premiere on the Lido at the Venice Film Festival, running September 2-12
Scroll down for full lineup
The selection, which was notably lighter on studio and streamer fare than in previous years and was heavily skewed towards films by male directors, was announced this morning by Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera
Among the films bringing stars to the Lido are British-Irish director McDonagh’s CIA tale Wild Horse Nine, set shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, which is being released through Searchlight Pictures and features John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi. McDonagh previously premiered The Banshees of Inerishin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouriat Venice
Zeller’s thriller Bunker will also boost the red-carpet glamour with its stars Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger in the tale of an architect’s marriage being tested after he accepts a project to build a bunker for a billionaire. Zeller won the best adapted screenplay Oscar in 2021 for The Father, and was in Venice competition in 2022 for The Son
Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong’s highly anticipated Possible Love – his first film in eight years since his acclaimed Burning –also plays in competition. A Netflix production, it follows the intertwined lives of two married couples. The cast includes Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong
Among the Asian contingent in competition, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda is in with his live-action adaptation of bestselling manga Look Back, a coming-of-age story about two girls pursuing their dreams of becoming manga artists
Also selected is Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, starring Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush and Tatyana Ali, based on the experiences of an African American veteran of the Vietnam War
The line-up also includes veteran German director Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard starring real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara, based on the true story of inseparable twin sisters. Herzog returns to Venice after receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award last year
Italian titles
Among the five strong Italian contingent in competition is legendary Italian director Nanni Moretti’s long-awaited return to Venice, the romantic comedy It Will Happen Tonight,starringLouis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. Edoardo De Angelis – whose Commandante opened the festival in 2023 – returns with Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro, while Andrea Pallaoro’s love story The Echo Chamber stars Alicia Vikander, Lucmorea Marinelli and Susan Sarandon
Barbera flagged that there are a lot of long films in his selection, with the longest competition title being Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s 210-minute Dau, the latest in his monumentalDau series. Khrzhanovsky renounced his Russian citizenship in 2024
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck comes with his third feature as a director Company, a genre story starring Nick Nolte
Iranian director Ali Asgari comes to Venice for the third time with A Bit Of Light,about opponents of the Iranian regime waiting for change that never comes
French director Stephane Brize also returns to Venice with A Good Little Soldier starring Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon. Fellow French director Cedric Kahn is also in competition with A Place To Heal, set in an adolescent psychiatry unit in a French public hospital
Non-fiction epics
Barbera also unveiled a huge and very male-skewed out of competition non-fiction section, that included documentaries such as Russell Crowe’s music biopic What Love Builds, Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk doc Musk,Sergei Loznitza’s Imperium,Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’smusic docOasis: Don’t Look Back in Angerand Takashi Miike’sShumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki,as well asFree Solodirector’s Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’sEverest: The Other Sideand Wim Wenders’sFrom Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor.
The non-fiction line-up also included two docs focused on the Israel-Gaza war,Amos Gitai’sThe Road to Jericho andAhmed Hassouna’sCitizen Osama
Out of competition,the fiction line-up includesPaul Schrader’s The Basics Of Philosophywith Jack Huston, Bill Pullman and Sofia Boutella centring on a repressed philosophy professor; and Place to Beby Hungarian-born Kornel Mundruczo that stars Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson
The Venice Horizons section opens with 1930s-set Italian movie La Ragazza Con La Leica by Alina Marazzi, one of four Italian movies in the section
As previously announced, Danny Boyle’s Ink, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, will open Venice and will screen in competition. Netflix has US and Latin American rights
Maggie Gyllenhaal leads the competition jury, which also includes Kaouther Ben Hania and Daniel Blumberg. Gyllenhaal will also present her short film Flesh Impact out of competition with Ellen Berstyyn, Dakota Johnson and Stellan Starsgaard among the cast
The Giornate degli Autori and Critics’ Week titles were announced earlier this week
More to follow
Competition
InkDir. Danny Boyle
CompanyDir. Casey Affleck
A Bit Of LightDir. Ali Asgari
Ritorno A Buenos AiresDir. Marco Bechis
Un Bon Petit SoldatDir. Stephane Brize
Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti DentroDir. Edoardo De Angelis
Woman UnknownDir. May el-Toukhy
Bucking FastardDir. Werner Herzog
15/18 (A Place To Heal)Dir. Cedric Kahn
DauDir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Look BackDir. Hirokazu Koreeda
Possible LoveDir. Lee Chang-dong
Wild Horse NineDir. Martin McDonagh
Succedera Questa NotteDir. Nanni Moretti
PrimetimeDir. Lance Oppenheim
The Echo ChamberDir. Andrea Pallaoro
Un Peu Avant MinuitDir. Nicolas Pariser
L’EstraneaDir. Paolo Strippoli
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
BunkerDir. Florian Zeller
Venice Open – fiction
Dio RideDir. Giovanni Veronesi
Nessun DoloreDir. Gianni Amelio
Let Us Through, Dear AncestorsDir. Lav Diaz
Father JoeDir. Barthelemy Grossmann
ScherzettoDir. Mario Martone
Place To BeDir. Kornel Mundruczo
No Paradise If You Are Killed By A WomanDir. Halkawt Mustafa
Arrested MemoryDir. Sabu
The Basics Of PhilosophyDir. Paul Schrader
Un Bon AvocatDir. Tristan Seguela
JupiterDir. Alexandre Smia
Venice Open – non-fiction
Be BraveDir. Francesco Carrozzini
What Love BuildsDir. Russell Crowe
BurgundyDir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
MuskDir. Alex Gibney
The Road To JerichoDir. Amos Gitai
Citizen OsamaDir. Ahmed Hassouna
Union TownDir. Barbara Kopple
Holy Wood DustDir. Victor Kossakovsky
Letters From The Silenced CountryDir. Andrei Kutsila
Biografia De Jorge Luis BorgesDir. Mariano Llinas
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – ExileDir. Julia Loktev
BoatbuildersDir. Luke Lorentzen
ImperiumDir. Sergei Loznitsa
Shumei – The Living Legacy Of KabukiDir. Takashi Miike
Queer Edward IIDir. Theo Rollason
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In AngerDir. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
DustDir. Tsai Ming-Liang
Everest: The Other SideDir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
From Inside Out – The Architecture Of Peter ZumthorDir. Wim Wenders
Venice Open – film on films
Juso Per FerieDir. Karen Di Porto
Nino – Un Film Su Nino RotaDir. Walter Fasano
The Pervert’s Guide To UtopiasDir. Sophie Fiennes
Joie De VivreDir. Luca Guadagnino
Twist And Shoot Mister SuzukiDir. Yves Montmayeur
IntermissionDir. Yonfan
Venice Open – shorts
Flesh ImpactDir. Maggie Gylenhaal
Wild AsparagusDir. Avi Mograbi
They’re HereDir. Laura Poitras, Rachel Mueller
Venice Open – series
PeccatoDir. Valerio Vestoso
Venice Open – special screening
Dai Nostra in2Dir. Guiseppe Giannotti, Enrico Salvatori, Nicoletta Berardi
Horizons
La Ragazza Con Le LeicaDir. Alina Marazzi
The Burning GiantsDir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
What Belongs To OthersDir. Grzegorz Debowski
Una StoriaDir. Anna Foglietta
La Citta Dei ViviDir. Edoardo Gabbriellini
Falling HouseDir. Mohsen Gharaei
Too Much SugarDir. Robert Greene
The Difficult BrideDir. Rubaiyat Hossain
La Maison Du VentDir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
I Figli Della ScimmiaDir. Tommaso Landucci
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter PhaedraDir. Jacqueline Lentzou
OasisDir. Jannis Lenz
Until The Day EndsDir. Jelena Maksimovic
La MoulaDir. Jerome Pierrat
Lovers In The Blue NightDir. Anuparna Roy
Un Detour Par DianeDir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
The Colour Of The SunDir. Xavier Tera
EklipseDir. Manuel Wetscher
Big Little ThingsDir. Michelle Zhou
Spotlight
Sumo: Spirit Weighs NothingDir. Erik Shirai
Conversation With The SeaDir. Muayad Alayan
Hombre Al AguaDir. Gael Garcia Bernal
SerpentiDir. Roberto De Paolis Maino
FuriesDir. Rami Kodeih
GuriaDir. Levan Koguashvili
Ground FloorDir. Gabor Reisz
I MatterDir. Alina Serban
Topics
- Festivals
- Venice
