The 80th Venice Film Festival presented a varied program on Tuesday, despite the strike by American actors, but risks controversy due to the presence of films by Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson. It will be chaired by Franco-American Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle, director of La La Land And whiplash.
The inclusion of new films by Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, both selected out of competition, could spark controversy as both directors have been blacklisted by Hollywood over suspicions of sexual assault. While Roman Polanski is overtaken by old accusations of rape, Woody Allen has been the subject of several investigations, but was cleared by the police in the 1990s.
“A few stars less”
The impact of the American actors’ strike, which began on July 14, on the programming of the Mostra “is very modest”, artistic director Alberto Barbera told the press on Tuesday. “The only film we lost is the opening one, the very beautiful film Challengers by Luca Guadagnino,” said Alberto Barbera.
This movie will be replaced by Commander by another Italian director, Edoardo De Angelis. “There will be a few fewer stars (…) but we hope that the red carpet will not be stripped”, added Alberto Barbera.
Léa Seydoux and Guillaume Canet French stars
Among the 23 films in competition for the Golden Lion, one of the most anticipated is Maestro by Bradley Cooper on the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. It was not immediately clear if Bradley Cooper, who also plays the main role, would be present in Venice. Emma Stone, who plays a Frankenstein-like creature, a woman brought back to life by an eccentric scientist in Poor Things is unlikely to come.
On the French side, note the presence in competition of The beast by Bertrand Bonello, with Léa Seydoux, and Out of season by Stéphane Brizé, with Guillaume Canet. The festival will end with the screening on September 9 following the award ceremony for the film. La sociedad de la nieve by Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, inspired by the Andes crash of 1972.
At only 38 years old, Damien Chazelle, whose film babylon (2022) received three nominations at the last Oscars, is already a regular at the Mostra, where he opened in 2016 with La La Land and in 2018 with first-man. French filmmaker Alice Diop, 44, will chair the jury for the best first work, which will award the Lion of the Future, which she herself won in 2022 with the bonus of the Grand Jury Prize for her first fiction feature film, Saint-Omer.