Stars and geopolitics share the spotlight at Venice Film Festival

VENICE: The Venice Film Festival opens on Wednesday, drawing Hollywood royalty, European auteurs and Asian masters, plus a strong dose of political tension as Israel’s war in Gaza casts a shadow over the Lido.

The 11-day event fires the starting gun for the awards season, with films premiering here over the past four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it top draw for actors, producers and directors alike.

Among the A-listers expected on the red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac and Amanda Seyfried, while the programme spans psychological thrillers, art house dramas, documentaries and splashy studio-backed productions.

The celebration of cinema is also colliding with geopolitics.

A collective of film industry figures, Venice4Palestine, has urged the festival to take a robust stand over the war in Gaza, calling on the organisers to promote Palestinian voices and denounce Israeli actions in Gaza.

The appeal was signed by more than 1,500 people, including directors such as Ken Loach and Matteo Garrone, and actors Toni Servillo, Charles Dance and Alba Rohrwacher.

Festival director Alberto Barbera told Reuters on Tuesday that Venice welcomed open debate, but dismissed calls for Israeli filmmakers and actors to be barred from the Lido, the thin barrier island a short boat trip from the main city that hosts the festival.

“We don’t boycott anyone, of course, and we’re open to all the possible speeches about the contemporary situation, which is the way of better understanding how to solve this huge mass of problems that we have to face every day,” he said.

PALESTINIAN GIRL

One of the films in the main competition tackles the war in Gaza head on.

“The Voice of Hind Rajab”, directed by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania, tells the true story of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the territory in 2024 after being trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces.

“I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest impression,” Barbera predicted last month.

International politics and global intrigue feature strongly in the 82nd edition of the world’s oldest film festival.

Director Kathryn Bigelow will premiere her nuclear thriller “A House of Dynamite” on the Lido, while Olivier Assayas will present “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, which looks at the rise of Vladimir Putin, with Jude Law playing the Russian leader.

“It’s the comeback of a cinema of reality, the sensibility of the filmmakers, invested a lot in reflecting on the major problems of our contemporary world,” said Barbera.

Streaming giant Netflix, which skipped Venice last year, returns in force with not just the Bigelow movie, but also Guillermo del Toro’s re-telling of “Frankenstein” and Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama “Jay Kelly” competing for the coveted Golden Lion award.

Other highlights include Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia”, which will open the festival, Yorgos Lanthimos’s satire “Bugonia”, Jim Jarmusch’s family triptych “Father Mother Sister Brother”, and Benny Safdie’s fighter biopic “The Smashing Machine”.

A very different biopic is “The Testament of Ann Lee” – a musical take on the life of the radical 18th-century Shaker leader, which is directed by Norway’s Mona Fastvold.

A trio of films from Asia are also in the main competition – “Girl” by Taiwan’s Shu Qi, “No Other Choice” by South Korea’s Park Chan-wook and “The Sun Rises on Us All” by China’s Cai Shangjun.

Out of competition, but still very much in the limelight, Luca Guadagnino presents his #MeToo-themed “After The Hunt” with Julia Roberts, who will be making her Venice red carpet debut.

The main jury is chaired by U.S. director Alexander Payne, joined by fellow filmmakers Stéphane Brizé, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Mohammad Rasoulof, alongside actresses Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao.