Venice Film Festival lineup features Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone and Dwayne Johnson
Two years after launching 'Poor Things' at Venice, Yorgos Lanthimos and Stone are returning with 'Bugonia,' an English language remake of the South Korean sci-fi comedy 'Save the Green Planet!' that is among the 21 films playing in the main competition. Clooney will also be back as star of Noah Baumbach's 'Jay Kelly,' in which he plays a famous actor on a trip through Europe with his longtime manager (Sandler).
Some of the other high-profile titles competing for the Golden Lion include: Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein,' with Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the monster; Benny Safdie's sports drama 'The Smashing Machine,' starring Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife; and Olivier Assayas's 'The Wizard of the Kremlin,' in which Jude Law plays Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano plays his spin doctor.
Also in competition are Kathryn Bigelow's 'A House of Dynamite,' a political thriller about an imminent missile strike on the U.S., starring Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and Jim Jarmusch's anthology film 'Father Mother Sister Brother,' with Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver. Many master filmmakers are also in the section: Park Chan-wook will debut 'No Other Choice'; László Nemes has his most personal film yet in 'Orphan'; and François Ozon takes on an Albert Camus adaptation with 'L'étranger.'
One of the titles bound to make waves is Kaouther Ben Hania's 'The Voice of Hind Rajab,' about the young girl who was killed along with six other relatives when they were trapped in their car under Israeli fire in northern Gaza.
Luca Guadagnino's 'After the Hunt,' a psychological thriller for the #MeToo era about a complaint of sexual violence at an American university, is debuting out of competition — a joint decision between the filmmaker and Amazon MGM. It will mark Roberts' first time at the festival. She co-stars in the film with Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri.
Julian Schnabel's 'In the Hand of Dante,' based on the cult novel, with Isaac, Gal Gadot, Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese, is also showing out of competition, as is Gus Van Sant's 'Dead Man's Wire,' with Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo and an appearance by Pacino.
The festival held on the Lido, a barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, will open with Paolo Sorrentino's 'La Grazia,' starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti, on Aug. 27 and run through Sept. 6. Alexander Payne is presiding over the main competition jury, which also includes actor Fernanda Torres and directors Cristian Mungiu, Mohammad Rasoulof and Maura Delpero.
Venice has established itself as a solid launching pad for Oscar hopefuls, with a handful of best picture winners, including 'The Shape of Water,' 'Spotlight,' 'Nomadland' and 'Birdman,' and many more nominees to its name. Last year's edition had several eventual Oscar winning films in the lineup, including Brady Corbet's 'The Brutalist,' which won three including best actor for Adrien Brody, Walter Salles' best international feature winner 'I'm Still Here,' and the animated short 'In the Shadow of the Cypress.'
Corbet co-wrote another competition entry with his partner Mona Fastvold, who directed, 'The Testament of Ann Lee' with Amanda Seyfried. Like 'The Brutalist,' it was also shot on 70 mm, but is quite a bit shorter.
Venice will be just the first stop for several films, including 'Frankenstein' and 'The Smashing Machine,' which will all go on to play at the Toronto Film Festival shortly after.
The festival has programmed 15 documentaries out of competition including Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras, and Mark Obenhaus's, 'Cover-Up,' about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh; Sofia Coppola's documentary 'Marc by Sofia' about her longtime friendship with fashion designer Marc Jacobs; Werner Herzog's doc 'Ghost Elephants,' described as being as exciting as a thriller; and 'Kim Novak's Vertigo.'
Both Novak and Herzog are being honored with lifetime achievement awards during the festival.
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Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
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