Cowboys, astronauts at Venice

Coen Brothers’ new western also competing with 20 other films at iconic film festival

Offbeat American filmmakers the Coen Brothers were the surprise entry in the 2018 Venice Film Festival line-up, making their new western a contender for the Golden Lion award. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is competing for the coveted gong alongside 20 other films featuring a raft of Hollywood stars, including Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman and Willem Dafoe.

Starring Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco and Liam Neeson, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs features six tales about the wild west narrated by Joel and Ethan Coen.

The movie is one of two westerns competing, with French director Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal also up for the top prize.

The star-studded festival begins August 29, kicking off with First Man by Damien Chazelle. The film, which stars Ryan Gosling, follows the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong in the years leading up to 1969, when he became the first man to walk on the moon.

Not featured in the official selection, but tipped for Oscar success, US actor Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star is Born, will also be shown on the glamorous Lido di Venezia. Cooper stars in the film alongside US pop star Lady Gaga.

ORSON WELLES’ UNFINISHED FILM

However, one of the festival’s most eagerly-awaited events will be the out-ofcompetition world premiere of Orson Welles’ final and previously unfinished film, The Other Side Of The Wind.

The movie remained in limbo for decades after initial shooting between 1970-76. At the time of Welles’ death in 1985, it was far from finished, and a complex legal battle over ownership of the film — left in a vault in Paris — had already broken out.

The battle only came to an end in March 2017, when Netflix announced their distribution of the film, enabling a post-production team to finally finish it nearly half a century after shooting began.