Venice becomes first major film festival to return after coronavirus lockdown
Helen Mirren, Shia LaBeouf and Greta Thunberg are among the big names due to be on display at the 2020 Venice film festival, as it gears up to be the first major festival to stage a physical event in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Inevitably the lineup has a slimmed-down feel, with many films delayed or held back, meaning there is little in the way of Venice’s traditional dose of Hollywood glamour.
Festival director Alberto Barbera announced the main list of titles on Tuesday, which drew together films by the likes of Alex Gibney, Chloé Zhao and Luca Guadagnino. Zhao’s film, Nomadland, is arguably the most prized: following her indie hit The Rider, Zhao has adapted Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction account of older Americans forced on to the road by economic crisis, with Frances McDormand acting as producer as well as taking the lead role. In a sign of the pressures on film festivals, Nomadland will simultaneously premiere at the Toronto film festival, as well as subsequently filling the prestigious Centrepiece screening at the New York film festival.
While American studio product is thin on the ground, a string of international auteurs have had their films selected, including veteran Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky, Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai, and previous Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi. Call Me By Your Name director Guadagnino
will bring Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, a documentary about Salvatore Ferragamo, the founder of the celebrated shoe brand, and Gibney’s film is Crazy, Not Insane, a profile of Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a pioneering forensic psychiatrist and serial-killer investigator. Thunberg is the subject of
another documentary, Greta, directed by Nathan Grossman.
The British contribution is led by The Duke, directed by Notting Hill’s Roger Michell, which stars Jim Broadbent and Mirren in a story inspired by the real-life theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery in 1961. Nowhere Special, which stars James Norton as a window-cleaner in Belfast and is directed by The Full Monty producer Uberto Pasolini, has been selected for the Orizzonti section, while Final Account, a decade-in-the-making documentary collecting testimonies from Holocaust perpetrators is screening out of competition after the death of its director Luke Holland.
The festival is expected to go ahead with reduced numbers of delegates and social distancing protocols in place, as well as more screenings in outdoor venues. The associated film market will move online, as will the festival’s ambitious virtual reality competition, which has operated since 2017 on Venice’s Lazzaretto Vecchio island.
In previous years, much criticism has been directed at Venice for its seeming inability to select significant numbers of female directors, with two included in the 2019 competition and one in 2018. This year, in contrast, Barbera has named eight films (out of 18) with female directors that will compete for the Golden Lion, including Zhao, French director Nicole Garcia and US-based Norwegian film-maker Mona Fastvold.
The festival is also due to give life achievement Golden Lions to veteran Hong Kong actor-director Ann Hui and British actor Tilda Swinton, while Cate Blanchett has been installed as competition jury president.
The Venice film festival runs from 2-12 September.
Venice film festival – full lineup
Competition In Between Dying (dir: Hilal Baydarov) Le Sorelle Macaluso (dir: Emma Dante)T he World to Come (dir: Mona Fastvold) Nuevo Orden (dir: Michel Franco) And Tomorrow the Entire World (dir: Julia von Heinz) Amants (Lovers) (dir: Nicole Garcia) Laila in Haifa (dir: Amos Gitai) Dear Comrades (dir: Andrei Konchalovsky) Wife of a Spy (dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa) Sun Children (dir: Majid Majidi) Pieces of a Woman (dir: Kornél Mundruczó)
Miss Marx (dir: Susanna Nicchiarelli) Padre Nostro (dir: Claudio Noce) Notturno (dir: Gianfranco Rosi) Never Gonna Snow Again (dirs: Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert)The Disciple (dir: Chaitanya Tamhane) Quo Vadis, Aida? (dir: Jasmila Žbanić) Nomadland (dir: Chloé Zhao)
OrizzontiLa Troisième Guerre (dir: Giovanni Aloi) Milestone (dir: Ivan Ayr) The Wasteland (dir: Ahmad Bahrami) The Man Who Sold His Skin (dir: Kaouther Ben Hania) I Predatori (dir: Pietro Castellitto) Mainstream (dir: Gia Coppola) Guerra e Pace (dirs: Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti) Genus Pan (dir: Lav Diaz) Zanka Contact (dir: Ismael el Iraki) La Nuit des Rois (dir: Philippe Lacôte) The Furnace (dir: Roderick MacKay) Careless Crime (dir: Shahram Mokri) Gaza Mon Amour (dirs: Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser) Apples (dir: Christos Nikou) Selva Tragica (dir: Yulene Olaizola) Nowhere Special (dir: Uberto Pasolini) Listen (dir: Ana Rocha de Sousa) The Best Is Yet to Come (dir: Wang Jing) Yellow Cat (dir: Adilkhan Yerzhanov)
Out of competition – special screenings30 Monedas, Episode 1 (dir: Álex de la Iglesia) Princesse Europe (dir: Camille Lotteau) Omelia Contadina (dir: Alice Rohrwacher)
Out of competition – fiction Mandibules (dir: Quentin Dupieux) Love After Love (dir: Ann Hui) Lacci (dir: Daniele Luchetti) – opening film Assandira (dir: Salvatore Mereu) The Duke (dir: Roger Michell) Lasciami Andare (dir: Stefano Mordini) Night in Paradise (dir: Park Hoon-jung) Mosquito State (dir: Filip Jan Rymsza)
Out of competition – non-fiction Sportin’ Life (dir: Abel Ferrara) Crazy, Not Insane (dir: Alex Gibney) Greta (dir: Nathan Grossman) Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams (dir: Luca Guadagnino) Final Account (dir: Luke Holland) La Verità Su La Dolce Vita (dir: Giuseppe Pedersoli) Molecole (dir: Andrea Segre) Narciso Em Ferias (dirs: Renato Terra, Ricardo Calil) Paulo Conte, Via Con Me (dir: Giorgio Verdelli) Hopper/ Welles (dir: Orson Welles) City Hall (dir: Frederick Wiseman)