The Venice Film Festival has unveiled this year’s roster of films ahead of a planned physical event in September – the first major international festival to do so after the coronavirus crisis.
Set to run September 2nd-12th, this year’s fest will have a reduced but still relatively plentiful lineup with around 60 premieres both in and out of competition. Understandably there’s not a big American presence this year and interestingly nothing from streaming giant Netflix.
Travel into Italy is currently allowed from within Europe, the U.K., and some other countries like Canada and New Zealand. Travel from the U.S. into Italy is allowed for work reasons, but restrictions are expected to change by September.
The festival will include a socially distanced red carpet, and social distancing norms in its venues with two outdoor arenas – one in Venice proper and another on the Lido where much of the non-industry audience will be watching the films. Of the eighteen movies competing for the Golden Lion, eight are by female directors.
Titles to screen include Chloe Zhao’s road drama “Nomadland,” Mona Fastvold’s period drama “The World to Come,” Michel Franco’s dystopian Mexico City-set “Nuevo Orden,” Nicole Garcia’s “Lovers,” Roger Mitchell’s art heist film “The Duke,” Kornel Mundruczo’s “Pieces of a Woman,” Gia Coppola’s “Mainstream,” Amos Gitai’s disco-set “Laila in Haifa,” Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx” and Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades”.
Cate Blanchett will preside over the main jury with Tilda Swinton and Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui honored with Golden Lions for career achievement. The full line-up of films being shown is up at the official site.
Source: Screen International
