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Dos presencias españolas, ‘Extraño Río’ y ‘Calle Málaga’, en la programación de la Biennale.

© Biennale

Ayer se desveló la impresionante programación de la 82 edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia, que se celebra del 27 de agosto al 6 de septiembre. Una selección potente, con claro protagonismo del cine en lengua inglesa, que busca posicionar a Venecia como la antesala decisiva de la temporada de premios. No es un gesto gratuito: Anora, ganadora en Cannes el año pasado, acabó llevándose el Óscar a la Mejor Película. Y ahora, todos miran a la Mostra como el próximo trampolín. Así, en la competición por el León de Oro hay nombres de peso como Guillermo del Toro, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach, Park Chan-wook, o Benny Safdie. La riqueza de la programación se extiende también a las secciones paralelas y fuera de competición. En ellas se presentarán, entre otros, los nuevos trabajos de...

It's going to be a smashing time in Venice this year. The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 82nd edition and the annual event will serve as the launching pad for Dwayne Johnson's Oscar campaign. The WWE star-turned-leading man plans to be front and center on the Lido with the competition entry The Smashing Machine from director Benny Safdie. Based on the life of Mma fighter Mark Kerr, the film reunites Johnson with his Jungle Cruise costar, Emily Blunt, and hopes to succeed in the awards race where A24's last sports picture — 2023's The Iron Claw — fell short.

But Johnson is stepping into the ring with some heavy-hitters in the Best Actor race, including George Clooney and Oscar Isaac. Both stars will be in Venice for their respective Netflix productions, Jay Kelly and Frankenstein, which hail from directors with proven awards track records. Clooney...

The lineup for this year’s Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, with the likes of Giullermo del Toro, Noah Baumbach, Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, and Yorgos Lanthimos all competing for the coveted Golden Lion.

Here is the full lineup of 20 films in competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival:

Ballad of a Small Player, Edward Berger

Below the Clouds, Gianfranco Rosi

Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos

Duse, Pietro Marcello

Elisa Leonardo Di Costanzo

Father Mother Sister Brother, Jim Jarmusch

Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro

The Grace, Paolo Sorrentino

A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow

Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach

Mother Bhum, Chong Keat Aun

No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook

A Pied D’Oeuvre, Valerie Donzelli

Silent Friend, Ildiko Enyedi

The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie

The Stranger, François Ozon

The Sin Rises on Us All, Cai Shangjun

The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvoid

The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” are heading to the Lido for their world premieres at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.

At a press conference in Venice on Tuesday morning, the announcement of those and other titles was made by Alberto Barbera, Director of the Cinema Department and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of La Biennale di Venezia.

Other films in the Venice main competition include new work from Paolo Sorrentino (“La Grazia”), Jim Jarmusch (“Father Mother Sister Brother”), Laszlo Nemes (“Orphan”), Park Chan-wook

“Sermon to the Void,” Hilal Baydarov

“L’Isola di Andrea,” Antonio Capuano

“Il Maestro,” Andrea Di Stefano

“After the Hunt,” Luca Guadagnino

“Hateshinaki Scarlet,” Mamoru Hosoda

“The Last Viking,” Anders Thomas Jensen

“In the Hand of Dante,” Julian Schnabel

“Dead Man’s Wire,” Gus Van Sant

“Orfeo,” Virgilio Villoresi

Out of Competition – Non Fiction

“Kabul,...

Celebrating its 82nd edition this year, Venice Film Festival will take place August 27 through September 6. Ahead of the event, President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Director Alberto Barbera have now unveiled the lineup.

Highlights include new films from Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel, Laura Poitras, Benny Safdie, Werner Herzog, Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnino, Olivier Assayas, Sofia Coppola, Kent Jones, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mark Jenkin, Tsai Ming-liang, Mamoru Hosoda, Gus Van Sant, Noah Baumbach, Mona Fastvold, Pietro Marcello, Guillermo del Toro, László Nemes, and more.

See the lineup below.

Opening Film

La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino) (in competition)

Closing Film

Chien 51 (Cédric Jimenez) (out of competition)

In Competition

The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)

Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)

The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania)

A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)

The Sun Rises on Us All (Cai Shangjun)

Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)

Elisa (Leonardo Di Costanzo)

À pied d’œuvre...

Kathryn Bigelow’s A House Of Dynamite, Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, and Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt are among the films selected for the 82nd Venice Film Festival (August 27 - September 6).

Scroll down for full line-up

The first two are among 21 Competition titles, with further Competition entries including Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly starring George Clooney, Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard Of The Kremlin starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin, Mona Fastvold’s The Testament Of Ann Lee, and Guillermo del Toro’sFrankenstein starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi.

The selection was announced by artistic director Alberto Barbera,...

The line-up for the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (August 27-September 9) is being unveiled today at 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Scroll down for lineup

The press conference is live-streamed above, and this page will be updated with the films as they are announced.Refresh page for latest updates.

Alexander Payne will preside over the jury, which also includes Mohammad Rasoulof, Fernanda Torres, Stephane Brize, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Zhao Tao. Julia Ducournau will chair the Horizons jury.

The Venice Critics’ Week line-up was announced yesterday.

Competition

La Grazia

Dir.

The Hand Of God won four prizes including best film, best director and best supporting actress.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God won four prizes at the 67th David di Donatello awards, including best film (the first Netflix title to do so), best director and best supporting actress for Teresa Saponangelo.

The Oscar-nominated coming-of-age drama also shared the cinematography prize with Gabriele Mainetti’s Venice competition title Freaks Out, which won six awards in total, including prizes for the producers, production design, hairdressing, make-up and VFX.

The two films both had the highest number of nominations with 16.

The in-person...

The David di Donatello Awards were held in Rome on Tuesday evening, the first time Italy’s equivalent to the Oscar has had a fully in-person ceremony in the pandemic era. Taking top honors was Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God which scooped Best Film and Director as well as Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Saponangelo and a tie for Best Cinematography. In the latter category, The Hand Of God shared the win with Freaks Out, a fantasy drama that likewise debuted in Venice.

Sorrentino’s autobiographical drama launched on the Lido last September where it won the Grand Jury Prize. A Netflix title, it went on to myriad festival and critics prizes and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best International Feature.

Freaks Out, directed by Gabriele Mainetti, also picked up prizes for Producer, Production Design, Hair and Makeup. Other titles to figure in the David di...

Editors note: When we think of Robert De Niro and Italy, it’s easiest to focus on the Sicilian town of Corleone, because of his Oscar-winning turn in The Godfather: Part II. But De Niro wanted to focus on Naples, which director Paolo Sorrentino brought to life in The Hand of God. De Niro was so moved, he wrote a guest column for Deadline on why the film touched him so dearly.

There are so many terrific things about The Hand of God, Paolo Sorrentino’s rich coming-of-age story. It’s an intensely personal film. Sorrentino, who wrote as well as directed, created his surrogate Fabietto from his own DNA and experiences, and sets the film in his native Naples.

Fabietto’s most prominent co-star isn’t one of the marvelous cast, but rather the city itself. You share Sorrentino’s love for Napoli in the opening beauty shots of...

(l-r) Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo, in The Hand Of God by Paolo Sorrentino. Photo by Gianni Fiorito. Courtesy of Netflix.

Memory can be a powerful thing. The vivid autobiographical tale from Oscar-winning writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, The Hand Of God is a coming-of-age tale about an awkward teenage boy growing up in 1980s Naples, a sun-splashed, gritty, quirky place where he is surrounded by loving family and colorful characters, a place where the mundane and the magical exist side-by-side. Soccer and cinema are his obsessions but fate or luck – the hand of God – steps in and shapes the direction of his life.

Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) lives with his parents Saverio Schisa (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother Marchino Schisa (Marlon Joubert) and a sister we never see because she is always in the bathroom, sharing an apartment near the the port city’s old harbor.

The Hand of God In April 1987, Paolo Sorrentino’s parents left Naples for a weekend gateway in Roccaraso, Abruzzo. The future Oscar winner was meant to come along, but turned down the invite on account of a far juicier plan: a die-hard Napoli fan, his football team was to play an away match against Empoli, which meant a chance for the lad to see his hero, Greatest Player ff All Time Diego Armando Maradona, dispense his genius on the pitch. As it turned out, Sorrentino’s parents never made it back—they died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater, and the boy was left an orphan. He was only sixteen. “It was Maradona,” a relative exclaims in the director’s latest and most personal project to date, The Hand of God: “He saved you!” A portrait of the filmmaker as an adolescent, the film traces a sentimental...

In movies as disparate and vividly imagined as Il Divo, Loro, the Oscar winning The Great Beauty, as well as English language efforts like This Must Be The Place, Youth, and his TV miniseries The Young Pope and The New Pope Paolo Sorrentino has always seemed to be a director with a large brush and even more of a Fellini influence in some cases. That is why his latest, a largely autobiographical coming of age film called The Hand Of God which just had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and is next headed this weekend to Telluride, is such a departure, one absent the usual flourish the director often favors. Instead is an enormously effective and touching personal memoir of growing up in Naples circa the 1980’s. In many ways this is Sorrentino’s Amarcord, Day For Night, Cinema Paradiso,Pain And Glory, but first and foremost...

Spolight on the new projects from Rai Com, Latido, TrustNordisk and more.

Italy

Comedians, the new film by Gabriele Salvatores, headlines Rai Com’s market slate. The completed film is based on the play of the same name by Trevor Griffiths and is produced by Indiana with Rai Cinema. It features a cast of aspiring comedians preparing for their big night.

Intramovies is kickstarting sales on the Dutch drama Love In A Bottle, produced by Levitate Film and directed by Paula van der Oest, whose credits include Zus & Zo. It is a lockdown love story that unfolds over FaceTime. The...

Italy’s Minerva Pictures — the company specialized in genre fare such as teen chiller “Shortcut” that recently made a U.S. splash — is launching world sales at AFM on “Mondocane,” a dystopian drama about the struggle of two 13-year-old orphan boys in a Southern Italian gangland.

“Mondocane” toplines Alessandro Borghi (“Devils”).

In “Mondocane,” Borghi (pictured) plays the leader of one of two gangs vying for control of the Southern Italian port city of Taranto which in a dystopian near-future that has become a no man’s land surrounded by barbed wire and abandoned by police. The film is being marketed as an “Oliver Twist tale in a ‘Mad Max’ setting,” Minerva Pictures international sales chief Francesca Delise told Variety.

Delise noted that for Minerva, “Mondocane” segues from the international success it saw with Alessio Liguori’s “Shortcut,” which despite the pandemic recently went out theatrically on almost 700 U.S. screens via Gravitas Ventures.

As the Venice Film Festival slate starts to unspool, its 30th annual Critics' Week lineup celebrating new directors has now been revealed. It's a nostalgic program this year, with a screening of Scottish director Peter Mullan's 1998 "Orphans" opening the sidebar, running September 2 through 12. The drama won a surfeit of prizes when it premiered on the Lido, and four years later Mullan won the Golden Lion for his chilling "The Magdalene Sisters" (2002). Read More: Venice Taps Two Auteurs to Head Juries Critics' Week will close with "Bagnoli Jungle" by Antonio Capuano, who won a Venice prize in 1991 for "Vito and the Others." The selection of mostly European titles screening in and out of competition is below. Eight of these are world premieres, and they're eligible for Venice's Golden Lion of the Future first feature prize. In Competition Ana yurdu (Motherland) by Senem Tuzen - Turkey, Greece 2015 / 98’ Banat (Il viaggio) ...

Emanuele Gargiulo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Pianese Nunzio Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (2006) Franklin J. Schaffner-Gore Vidal's The Best Man: Sex Scandals and Politics at the Movies Pt. 3 Writer-director Antonio Capuano's Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May focuses not on a political figure, but on a politically active religious one. Set in Naples, Pianese Nunzio chronicles the anti-mafia crusade waged by Don Lorenzo Borrelli (Fabrizio Bentivoglio). Worshiped by the local population, Don Lorenzo is both feared and hated by the Camorra. How can the relentlessly determined priest be stopped? Well, it turns out that Don Lorenzo has fallen in love with thirteen-year-old Nunzio Pianese (Emanuele [...]...

Emma Thompson, John Travolta, Primary Colors Primary Colors (1998) Antonio Capuano's Pianese Nunzio: Sex Scandals and Politics at the Movies Pt. 4 Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Elaine May, adapting Newsweek political columnist Joe Klein's novel, Primary Colors is a surprisingly effective fictionalized account of Bill Clinton's run for the White House. In the film, Southern senator Jack Stanton (John Travolta) is an affable, slimy, untrustworthy, and perennially horny fellow. His goal — and that of his party's movers and shakers — is the White House. Obstacle to be removed: an alleged affair with a 17-year-old black woman that resulted in a [...]...

Rome -- Bertand Blier's comedy "Le bruit des glacons" (The Clink of the Ice) will open the seventh edition of the Venice Days sidebar at the Venice Film Festival, organizers said Tuesday, unveiling what may be the event's most international lineup ever.

 

The non-competitive sidebar will screen 12 films that are produced or co-produced in a total of 14 countries. Among the highlights: "La Vida de los peces" (The Life of Fish), a drama from Chilean director Matias Bize; "L'Amore Buio" (Dark Love), from Italy's Antonio Capuano; Paul Gordon's "The Happy Poet," about the protagonists' efforts to open a health food restaurant dring an economic crisis; and "Cirkus Columbia," a comedy from Danis Tanovic set in the period before the first war in the Balkans.

 

Though the event is not competitive, its selections are eligible for the Venice Film Festival's collateral prizes, and organizers earlier announced plans for a new Venice Days Award,...

Here's the press release for the Venice Days selections folks: lots of names we know! Official Selection   World Premiere La Vida De Los Peces/The Life Of Fish by Matias Bize with Santiago Cabrera, Blanca Lewin Chile - Production co.: Cenecca Producciones A young Chilean returns to Santiago after 10 years in Europe and ponders his past and future over a long night of encounters with old friends and his great love. This sentimental, urban comedy depicts a South America far from the stereotypes and folklore.   International Premiere - Opening film Le Bruit Des Glacons/The Clink Of Ice by Bertrand Blier with Jean Dujardin, Albert Dupontel, Anne Alvaro, Myriam Boyer France, Sales co.: Wild Bunch An alcoholic writer is confronted by an incarnation of his own cancer in this no-holds-barred, black comedy on illness and death. Nothing is spared politically incorrect derision - except for the desire to live and love.

Toni Servillo In Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino'S Il Divo. Courtesy Music Box Films. If Paolo Sorrentino represents the future of Italian cinema, then the country's filmic output certainly should be exciting in years to come. The highly accomplished writer-director was born in Naples in 1970, and first became involved in filmmaking in the mid-90s when he was an assistant director on a couple of films, The Gas Inspector and Drogheria (both 1995). Finding himself poorly suited to production work, Sorrentino transitioned into screenwriting, jointly penning Polveri di Napoli with the film's director Antonio Capuano in 1998. The same year, he wrote and directed the short L'amore non ha confini, and in 2001 he made his feature debut as...

• Pictured above: Laurence Kardish (MoMa) Antonio Monda (Nyu), Giampoalo Letta (Medusa Films), Salvatore Ferragamo (Ferragamo), and Mario Sesti (Film Critic) MoMA has done it again. Another tribute to Italian Cinema has arrived at the Museum of Modern Art. Following the tribute to Antonio Capuano and the tribute to Gianni Amelio, MoMA has hooked up with Medus Films and Salvatore Ferragamo to celebrate Medusa Film’s 10th Anniversary. As I was sitting in at the press conference for this event, I looked on stage and saw Ettore Scola. I turned to my right and saw Dario Argento. I look behind me and saw Paolo Sorrentino. I looked in front of me and saw Stefano Accorsi. It was the who’s who of Italian Cinema yesterday and today. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the production and distribution company Medusa, the president of Medusa donated 14 of their most popular titles to

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• The N.I.C.E. Festival (New Italian Cinema Event) is celebrating its 15th Anniversary this year with yet again another group of eclectic Italian films. N.I.C.E. has helped nurture new Italian filmmakers from obscurity to world wide recognition boosting a list of filmmakers including Marco Risi, Antonio Capuano, Matteo Garrone, Pappi Corsicato, and Silvio Soldini, among others. N.I.C.E. holds events in New York, San Francisco, Moscow, Amsterdam and soon in Philadelphia. This year’s festival is filled with diversity and these filmmakers surely will become known in Italy and abroad in the coming years. A short film plays with each film. For more information regarding all of these films and the organization that runs the event go to: www.nicefestival.org. The independent film theater the Quad Cinema @ 34 West 13th Avenue in New York City is the venue to see all of these films.

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• Antonio Capuano presented three films that were rarely seen in the U.S. - Luna Rossa and Polvere di Napoli has already been released in Italy. Mario’s War premiered here at MoMA before its official release. Mario’s War was at the Toronto Film Festival 2005 and received critical acclaim. Antonio was here to introduce all of his films and add a little insight into them. Luna Rossa (Red Moon), 2001, 116mins AC: "This film is brutal, it’s harsh, it’s violent. It is like a punch in the face. If anyone one of you like to be hit in the face or even the teeth then this film is for you and you will enjoy it." Luna Rossa is Capuano’s version of an epic. It’s his King Lear, his Once Upon a Time..., his Godfather I & II, his Orestiadi. It has a classic, more polished feel then his previous films.

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• A piece of Napoli inside these doors. Antonio Capuano (L) presenting his film to the public The newly renovated MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) is the home of the Antonio Capuano Retrospective. Showing his films throughout this weekend and premiering Mario‘s War for a New York audience and members of the artistic community that frequents the museum. Yesterday the film Vito and the Others (Vito e gli Altri), Pianese Nunzio: 14 years old in May (Pianese Nunzio: 14 Anni a Maggio) and the short film Sophialoren screened to pack house. Antonio Capuano was there with Gian Mario Feltti (his producer) and I interviewed them about their works. Vito and the Other – 85 mins. 1991 On its surface, this film is a story about street kids who suffer the pitfalls of poverty and live their life on the outskirts of society with no direction. But beneath the surface this film is statement against filmmaking.

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• Neapolitan film director Antonio Capuano sat with his producer, Gian Mario Feletti, MoMA’s Curator Jvtte Jensen, and the N.I.C.E. festival Director Viviana del Bianco at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York City to introduce the 15th annual N.I.C.E.. Festival. N.I.C.E. is the New Italian Cinema Event Festival that brings overseas the best of Italy’s emerging talent in film. Along with showcasing the new Italian films from the past year, N.I.C.E. also commemorates a contemporary filmmaker who has built a body of work within the past twenty years because they want to celebrate the new directors of Italian Cinema. Last year that honor went to Matteo Garrone, the author or The Embalmer (L’Imbalsamatore) and this year it is the Antonio Capuano. Jvtte and Viviana were both happy to bring Antonio and his work to

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• Antonio Capuano is one of those filmmakers whose pride and love for his home, for his city, for his Napoli, is overwhelming. His inspiration is the contemporary world that surrounds him and he turns that world into cinematic Art. He strives to tell the stories he wants to tell, they way he wants to tell them. Antonio Capuano is building a strong foundation for a body of work that will surely be remembered. The Department of Film and Mediaâ€.s annual collaboration with N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) features emerging directors whose innovative work is deserving of international recognition. Antonio Capuano, this yearâ€.s artist in focus, is a well-known theater and television director, a painter and set designer, and a filmmaker. Capturing the maverick spirit flourishing in Naples today, the director is celebrated for his honest depiction of troubled teenagers and his ability to translate

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