The 80th Venice Film Festival is set to be different this year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, resulting in the absence of Hollywood stars.
Despite the strike, the festival has put together an impressive lineup featuring movies from renowned directors such as David Fincher, Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, and Ava DuVernay.
The festival will also showcase films from other celebrated directors, including Wes Anderson, J.A. Bayona, William Friedkin, and Richard Linklater, outside of the main competition. The jury, led by Damien Chazelle, is filled with high-profile directors.
The 80th Venice Film Festival is gearing up to deliver its most different edition ever this September. Hollywood stars are likely not going to attend the event due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike (which prevents them from promoting movies as well), but that didn’t stop the event’s organization to put together a lineup that will certainly make attendees rush to get their tickets. There was some concern that high-profile titles would be pulled from the festival following the strike, but so far the only movie that was removed was Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.
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The movies slated to premiere at the festival hail from some of the biggest names in the film industry. David Fincher (Gone Girl) will debut his new thriller The Killer, and the highly expected biopic Ferrari by director Michael Mann will also be screened at the festival, as well as Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. Ava DuVernay (Selma) is set to make history within the festival as the first Black female director to compete for a Golden Lion in the event’s main category with her new film Origin – which is also her first feature film in five years.
Bradley Cooper’s directorial follow-up to A Star is Born is also on the lineup: Maestro stars himself as world-famous composer Leonard Bernstein, who wrote music to legendary films like West Side Story and On the Waterfront. Other heavyweight directors include Ryûsuke Hamaguchi with Evil Does Not Exist, Luc Besson with Dogman, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ second team-up with Emma Stone (La La Land) in Poor Things.
2023 Venice Film Festival's Jury Is Also Brimming With All-Star Directors
Outside the main competition, the Venice Film Festival will also showcase new titles from other celebrated directors such as J.A. Bayona (Society of the Snow), Wes Anderson (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar), William Friedkin (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial) and Richard Linklater (Hitman). With Challengers removed from the lineup, the opening night title will now be Comandante, from Italian director Edoardo De Angelis.
The festival’s jury is also overflowing with high-profile directors: They are led by president Damien Chazelle (Babylon), who’s had movies open the festival in previous years. Chazelle is joined on the board by Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Mia Hansen-Løve (Bergman Island) and others.
The 80th Venice Film Festival takes place from August 30 to September 9 in Venice, Italy. You can check out the full lineup on the festival’s website.
You can watch the trailer for Poor Things, one of the year’s most anticipated films, below:
