The 81st Venice Film Festival is set to dazzle cinephiles with an impressive lineup of high-profile films and star-studded casts. Announced by artistic director Alberto Barbera and new president of the Venice Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, this year’s festival promises a rich mix of genres, established names, and potential discoveries.
Headlining the festival is Todd Phillips’ Joker 2: Folie à Deux, the musical sequel to the 2019 hit Joker. Starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, the film is in the running for the top prize. Another major contender is Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel featuring Daniel Craig as a heroin-addicted American expat in Mexico. Drew Starkey co-stars as the object of his obsession.
The festival opens with Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel to his 1988 classic, featuring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Monica Bellucci. Out-of-competition highlights include Jon Watts’ action comedy Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Harmony Korine’s thriller Baby Invasion.
Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film, The Room Next Door, stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton and is expected to make a significant impact. The film follows the success of Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, which won the Best Actress award at Venice for Penélope Cruz.
Pablo Larraín returns with Maria, a biopic of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie. Known for his compelling portrayals of historical figures, Larraín’s previous works Spencer and Jackie also premiered at Venice.
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist chronicles the life of Holocaust survivor and architect László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody. The film’s ensemble cast includes Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, and Guy Pearce. Corbet’s previous films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux were also showcased at Venice.
Justin Kurzel’s The Order features Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult in a tale about a white supremacist organization in the 1980s, while Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, an erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas, and Harris Dickinson, adds to the competition’s diversity.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV+ series Disclaimer, starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, and Joe Wright’s M. Son of the Century, about Benito Mussolini, are among the festival’s TV offerings.
This year’s international jury will be led by French veteran star Isabelle Huppert, along with jurors James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi.
Here is the full lineup this year:
COMPETITION
The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
Campo di Battaglia, Gianni Amelio (Italy)
Leurs Enfants Après Eux, Ludovic Bouckherma, Zoran Boukherma (France)
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet (U.K.)
The Quiet Son, Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin (France)
Vermiglio, Maura Delpero (Italy, France, Belgium)
Sicilian Letters, Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza (Italy, France)
Queer, Luca Guadagnino (Italy, U.S.)
Love, Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
April, Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia, France, Italy)
The Order, Justin Kurzel (Canada)
Maria, Pablo Larrain (Italy, Germany)
Trois Amies, Emmanuel Mouret (France)
Kill the Jockey, Luis Ortega (Argentina, Spain)
Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips (U.S.)
Babygirl, Halina Reijn (U.S.)
I’m Still Here, Walter Salles (Brazil, France)
Diva Futura, Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (Italy)
Harvest, Athina Rachel Tsangari (U.K., Germany, Greece, France, U.S.)
Youth – Homecoming, Wang Bing (France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
Stranger Eyes, Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, Taipei, France, U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton (U.S., U.K.) – Opening Film
L’Orto Americano, Pupi Avati (Italy) — Closing Film
Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole, Francesca Comencini (Italy, France)
Phantosmia, Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Maldoror, Fabrice Du Welz (Belgium, France)
Broken Rage, Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Baby Invasion, Harmony Korine (U.S.)
Cloud, Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Japan)
Finalement, Claude Lelouch (France)
Wolfs, Jon Watts (U.S.)
Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
Allégorie Citadine, Alice Rohrwacher, JR (France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIES
Disclaimer, Alfonso Cuaron (U.K., U.S.)
The New Years, Rodrigo Sorogoyen Del Amo, Sandra Romero, David Martín De Los Santos (Spain)
Families Like Ours, Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Germany)
M: Son of the Century, Joe Wright (Italy, France)
OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION
Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa (Brazil)
Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari, Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy, Switzerland)
Why War, Amos Gitai (Israel, France)
2073, Asif Kapadia (U.K.)
One to One: John & Yoko, Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice Edwards (U.K.)
Separated, Errol Morris (U.S., Mexico)
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, Göran Hugo Olsson (Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
Russians at War, Anastasia Trofimova (France, Canada)
Twst/Things We Said Today, Andrei Ujica (France, Romania)
Songs of Slow Burning Earth, Olha Zhurba (Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden)
Riefenstahl, Andres Veiel (Germany)
OUT OF COMPETITION — SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito (Parts 1 and 2), Sergio Rubini (Italy)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Peter Weir (U.S.)
Beauty Is Not a Sin, Nicolas Winding Refn (Italy, Denmark)
HORIZONS
Nonostante, Valerio Mastandrea (Italy) – Opening Film
Quiet Life, Alexandros Avranas (France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Estonia, Finland)
Mon Inséparable, Anne-Sophie Bailly (France)
Aïcha, Mehdi Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
Happy Holidays, Scandar Copti (Germany, Italy, Qatar)
Familia, Francesco Costabile (Italy)
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies, Murat Firatoglu (Turkey)
Familiar Touch, Sarah Friedland (U.S.)
Marco, Jon Garraño, Aitor Arregi (Spain)
Carissa, Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa)
Wishing on a Star, Péter Kerekes – Documentary – (Italy, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic)
Mistress Dispeller – Documentary – Elizabeth Lo (China)
The New Year That Never Came, Bogdan Muresanu (Romania, Serbia)
Pooja, Sir, Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal, U.S., Norway)
Of Dogs and Men, Dani Rosenberg (Israel, Italy)
Pavements, Alex Ross Perry (U.S.)
Happyend, Neo Sora (Japan, U.S.)
L’Attachement, Carine Tardieu (France, Belgium)
Diciannove, Giovanni Tortorici (Italy, U.K.)
HORIZONS EXTRA
September 5, Tim Fehlbaum (Germany)
Vittoria, Alessandro Cassignoli, Casey Kauffman (Italy)
Le Mohican, Frédéric Farrucci (France)
Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo, Khaled Mansour (Egypt, Saudi Arabia)
La Storia Del Frank e Della Nina, Paola Randi (Italy, Switzerland)
The Witness, Nader Saeivar (Germany, Austria)
After Party, Vojtech Strakaty (Czech Republic)
Edge of Night, Türker Süer (Germany, Turkey)
King Ivory, John Swab (U.S.)
The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival will run August 28 to September 7.
