The 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival opens this year. At the dedicated press conference, the artistic director of the cinema sector Alberto Barbera - flanked as usual by the president of the Venice Biennale Roberto Cicutto - announced the official programme, with some returns and many new features that will certainly arouse the attention of all interested parties.
At the opening Barbera spoke of the film "Challengers" by Luca Guadagnino, specifying that it will be the only film absent from the festival despite its selection. This is due to the postponement of its release date by directive from Warner, also following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike of actors and writers still ongoing in the United States. His replacement - as previously announced - will be "Comandante" by Edoardo De Angelis starring Pierfrancesco Favino, who has been assigned the opening screening. Always of Italian production we will also find the second test directed by Pietro Castellitto with "Enea" and the return of Saverio Costanzo with "Finally Dawn". Among the various foreign titles in competition we will find, for example, "DogMan" by Luc Besson, "Maestro" by Bradley Cooper and "Priscilla" by Sofia Coppola.
But the promises of the new cinema certainly don't end there. Among the eagerly awaited in competition we certainly cannot forget the latest work by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos "Poor Things", but also the brand new "The Killer" directed by the master of the thriller David Fincher and "Origin" by the American director Ava DuVernay. Also in competition will be "Ferrari" by Michael Mann and "Lo Capitano" by the award-winning Matteo Garrone. Among the five Italian films in competition, Giorgio Rights' “Lubo” and Stefano Sollima's “Adagio” must also be taken into account.
Even with regard to titles out of competition, the list is substantial. Among the selected names, we point out in particular the latest effort by Woody Allen entitled "Coup de Chance", "The Palace" by another cinema veteran who responds to the name of Roman Polanski and "Hit Man" by the equally well-known among the niches of passionate Richard Linklater. During the event there will also be short films, such as the latest directed by Wes Anderson and produced by Netflix "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar". At the end of the event, the screening of the survival thriller "Society of the snow" was assigned, again by Netflix and director Antonio Bayona.
Television series also carve out a space among the out of competition: the two scheduled are "D'argent et de Sang", a French production by Xavier Giannoli and Frederic Planchon, and the Bosnian series "I Know Your Soul" directed by Alen Drjević and Nermin Hamzagic.
In short, it seems evident that despite the complications linked to the recent protests - which it seems will last at least until the autumn - we have nevertheless managed to guarantee a varied and interesting program for the anniversary, with many important names in cinema called to the forefront. Overall, the emergency solution initially formulated by Barbera of organizing a mainly pan-European oriented festival would seem to be confirmed, with the door left open to all those on the American market who also intend to take part in the initiative.
Giovanni G. Scanu
