Following on from TIFF’s recent lineup announcement, the Venice Film Festival has just announced the films that will be competing for the prestigious Golden Lion this year, previously won in 2018 by Roma. However, although some exciting films appear on the lineup, critics have been quick to point out the lack of women on the lineup and the frankly shameful inclusion of Roman Polanski.
Opening the festival will be The Truth, a film by Hirokazu Kore-ea starring Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke and Catherine Deneuve. Joining the lineup will be Todd Phillips’ Joker, the Brad Pitt-starring Ad Astra and Steven Sonderbergh’s The Laundromat.
Everyone’s favourite strong-jawed, floppy-haired actor Timothée Chalamet will appear in David Michôd’s The King, also starring Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson and Lily-Rose Depp. Based on William Shakespeare’s Henriad, Chalamet is set to play an English wayward prince who must navigate various crises while ascending to the throne to become King Henry V.
Out of all 22 films in competition, though, a measly 2 are directed by women. What’s more, one of the men is Roman Polanski, which will surely and rightly cause outrage. It’s rather ironic that his film, J’Accuse, focuses on an infamous miscarriage of justice, when he himself is a convicted and fugitive rapist of a minor and has eluded punishment for 42 years. If the film industry truly believed in basic message of the #MeToo movement, we can only hope for statements and boycotts to start flooding in.
The 76th annual Venice Film Festival runs August 29 to September 7.
The full line-up:
Opening Film
“The Truth,” Hirokazu Kore-eda (in competition)
Closing Film
“The Burnt Orange Heresy,” Giuseppe Capotondi (out of competition)
Competition
“The Perfect Candidate,” Haifaa Al-Mansour
“About Endlessness,” Roy Andersson
“Wasp Network,” Olivier Assayas
“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach
“Guest of Honor, Atom Egoyan
“Ad Astra,” James Gray
“A Herdade,” Tiago Guedes
“Gloria Mundi,” Robert Guediguian
“Waiting for the Barbarians,” Cio Guerra
“Ema,” Pablo Larrain
“Saturday Fiction,” Lou Ye
“Martin Eden,” Pietro Marcello
“The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be,” Franco Maresco
“The Painted Bird,” Vaclav Marhoul
“The Mayor of the Rione Sanità,” Mario Martone
“Babyteeth,” Shannon Murphy
“Joker,” Todd Phillips
“An Officer and a Spy,” Roman Polanski
“The Laundromat,” Steven Soderbergh
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” Yonfan
Special Event
“Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” Tsai Ming-Liang
Out of Competition – Fiction
“Seberg,” Benedict Andrews
“Vivere,” Francesca Archibugi
“Mosul,” Matthew Michael Carnahan
“Adults in the Room,” Costa-Gavras
“The King,” David Michod
“Tutto Il Mio Folle Amore,” Gabriele Salvatores
Out of Competition – Non Fiction
“Woman,” Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Anastasia Mikova
“Roger Waters Us + Them,” Sean Evans, Roger Waters
“I Diari Di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Secondo,” Yervant Gianikian
“Citizen K,” Alex Gibney
“Citizen Rosi,” Didi Gnocchi, Carolina Rosi
“The Kingmaker,” Lauren Greenfield
“State Funeral,” Sergei Loznitsa
“Collective,” Alexander Nanau
“45 Seconds of Laughter,” Tim Robbins
Out of Competition – Special Screenings
“No One left Behind,” Guillermo Arriaga
“Il Pianeta in Mare,” Andrea Segre
“Electric Swan,” Konstantina Kotzamani
“Irreversible,” Gaspar Noe”
“Zerozerozero,” Stefano Sollima
“The New Pope,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Never Just a Dream: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut,” Matt Wells
“Eyes Wide Shut,” Stanley Kubrick
Venice Classics
“The Incredible Shrinking Man,” Jack Arnold (1957)
“The Grim Reaper,” Bernardo Bertolucci (1962)
“The Spider’s Stratagem,” Bernardo Bertolucci (1970)
“The Criminal Life of Archibaldo del la Cruz,” Luis Buñuel (1955(
“The Crossing of the Rhine,” “Andre Cayatte (1960)
“Maria Zef,” Vittorio Cottafavi (1981)
“Crash,” David Cronenberg (1996)
“Francesca,” Manoel de Oliveira (1981)
“The House is Black,” Forough Farrokhzad (1962)
“The White Sheik,” Federico Fellini (1952)
“Current,” Istvan Gaal (1963)
“The Hills of Marlik,” Ebrahim Golestan (1964)
“Death of a Bureaucrat,” Tomas Gutierrez Alea (1966)
“Out of the Blue,” Dennis Hopper (1980)
“Ecstacy,” Gustav Machaty (1932)
“Mauri,” Merata Mita (1988)
“Pigeon Shoot,” Giuliano Montaldo (1961)
“New York, New York,” Martin Scorsese (1977)
“The Red Snowball Tree,” Vasiliy Shukshin (1973)
“Way of a Gaucho,” Jacques Tourneur (1952)
Venice Days
“Seules Les Bêtes,” Dominik Moll
“La llorona,” Jayro Bustamante
“They Say Nothing Stays the Same,” Joe Odagiri
“Un Monde Plus Grand,” Fabienne Berthaud
“Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa
“Beware Of Children,” Dag Johan Haugerud
“Un Divan à Tunis,” Manele Labidi
“The Long Walk,” Mattie Do
“Lingua Franca,” Isabel Sandoval
“5 è Il Numero Perfetto,” Igort
“Les Chevaux Voyageurs,” Bartabas
“Mio Fratello Rincorre I Dinosauri,” Stefano Cipani
Venice College Cinema
“The End of Love,” Keren Ben Rafael
“Lessons of Love,” Chiara Campara
“This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” Jeremiah Lemonhang Mosese
Sconfini
“Unposted,” Elisa Amoruso
“The Scarecrows,” Nouri Bouzid
“Once More Unto the Breach,” Federico Ferrone, Michele Manzolini
“Effetto Domino, Alessandro Rossetto
Horizons
“Zumiriki,” Osker Alegria
“Blanco En Blanco,” Theo Court
“Mes Jours De Gloire,” Antoine De Bary
“Pelican Blood,” Katrin Gebbe
“Un Fils,” Mehdi M Barsaouli
“Nevia,” Nunzia De Stefano
“Moffie,” Oliver Hermanus
“Hava, Maryam, Ayesha,” Sahraa Karimi
“Rialto,” Peter Mackie Burns
“The Criminal Man,” Dmitry Mamuliya
“Revenir,” Jessica Palud
“Giants Being Lonely,” Grear Patterson
“Verdict,” Raymund Ribay Gutierrez
“Balloon,” Pema Tseden
“Just 6.5,” Saeed Roustaee
“Shadow of Water,” Sasidharan Sanal Kumar
“Sole,” Carlo Sironi
“Madre,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen
“Atlantis,” Valentyn Vasyanovych
Words by Steph Green