Despite the current global pandemic causing film festivals like Cannes and Telluride to be cancelled, it is looking like one of the big three European film festivals is still going ahead as planned. The Venice International Film Festival has just announced the line up for their three main categories: Venezia 77, Horizons, and Out of Competition.
Films in the Venezia 77 category will compete for the coveted Golden Lion award. The most recent winners were Todd Phillips’ Joker which premiered during the 76th Venice International Film Festival, and Roma, which won in 2018. Here are the contenders for the 77th:
Venezia 77
- In Between Dying, Hilal Baydarov
- Le Sorelle Macaluso, Emma Dante
- The World to Come, Mona Fastvold
- Nuevo Orden, Michel Franco
- Lovers, Nicole Garcia
- Laila in Haifa, Amos Gitai
- Dear Comrades, Andrei Konchalovsky
- Wife of a Spy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Sun Children, Majid Majidi
- Pieces of a Woman, Kornel Mundruczo
- Miss Marx, Susanna Nicchiarelli
- Padrenostro, Claudio Noce
- Notturno, Gianfranco Rosi
- Never Gonna Snow Again, Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert
- The Disciple, Chaitanya Tamhane
- And Tomorrow the Entire World, Julia Von Heinz
- Quo Vadis, Aida?, Jasmila Zbanic
- Nomadland, Chloé Zhao
While the Venezia 77 category tends to be for your more traditional films, the Horizons category is open to all “custom-format” works with a wider view at new trends. Here is the list:
Horizons
- Apples, Christos Nikou
- La Troisième Guerre, Giovanni Aloi
- Milestone, Ivan Ayr
- The Wasteland, Ahmad Bahrami
- The Man Who Sold His Skin, Kaouther Ben Hania
- I Predatori, Pietro Castellitto
- Mainstream, Gia Coppola
- Genus Pan, Lav Diaz
- Zanka Contact, Ismael El Iraki
- Guerra e Pace, Martina Parenti, Massimo D’Anolfi
- La Nuit Des Rois, Philippe Lacôte
- The Furnace, Roderick Mackay
- Careless Crime, Shahram Mokri
- Gaza Mon Amour, Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
- Selva Tragica, Yulene Olaizola
- Nowhere Special, Uberto Pasolini
- Listen, Ana Rocha de Sousa
- The Best Is Yet to Come, Wang Jing
- Yellow Cat, Adilkhan Yerzhanov
The clue us in the name for the Out of Competition category, and refers to films which are unfortunately not in the running to get an award but will still be shown during the festival. This is what is screening in this category:
Out of Competition – Fiction
- Lacci, Daniele Lucheti
- Lasciami Andare, Stefano Mordini
- Mandibules, Quentin Dupieux
- Love After Love, Ann Hui
- Assandira, Salvatore Mereu
- The Duke, Roger Michell
- Night in Paradise, Park Soon-jung
- Mosquito State, Filip Jan Rymsza
Out of Competition – Nonfiction
- Sportin’ Life, Abel Ferrara
- Crazy, Not Insane, Alex Gibney
- Greta, Nathan Grossman
- Salvatore, Shoemaker of Dreams, Luca Guadagnino
- Final Account, Luke Holland
- La Verita Su la Dolce Vita, Giuseppe Pedersoli
- Molecole, Andrea Segre
- Narciso em Ferias, Renato Terra, Ricardo Calil
- Paulo Conte, Via con Me, Giorgio Verdelli
- Hopper/Welles, Orson Welles
Out of Competition – Special Screenings
- 30 Monedas, Episode 1, Alex de la Iglesia
- Princesse Europe, Camille Lotteau
- Omelia Contadina, Alice Rohrwacher Jr.
Cate Blanchett will serve as the competition jury president and help choose the winner for each of the awards up for grabs.
It is clear from this list that the Venice Film Festival is coming out swinging with a packed event, but that certainly won’t mean the experience will be the same as the years in the past. The current pandemic is sadly still a thing so the festival must comply with Italy’s COVID-19 protocols by limiting seats at all screenings to half full and checking the temperature of all guests. Both social distancing and mask-wearing must be enforced by all attendees.
The festival will open on 2 September with Daniele Luchetti’s Lacci , the first Italian film to do so in 11 years, and end on 12 September.
Words by George Bell
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