Angelina Jolie got her flowers. Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson got each other. Studios and streaming platforms were busy promoting the idea of “Let’s Make a Deal.”
The Venice Film Festival, which kicked off Aug. 28, wasn’t short of drama, even with its unexpected TV heft. As befits a glamorous celebration of movies all about excess, this year’s edition featured more blockbuster sales, on-screen sex, politics (on and off the red carpet), and movie star moments than ever before. In addition to Jolie and Kidman, A-listers like Jude Law of “The Order” and “Wolfs” duo George Clooney and Brad Pitt flashed their brightest smiles at dazzling premieres. There’s plenty to grab headlines, but as the festival reaches its halfway point, it’s already shaping up to be one of the most important in recent memory.
TV smashes lido
Venice is a must-see stop for films seeking Oscar heat, but this year’s festival is elevating some of its 2025 Emmy contenders. The Venice program was packed with creative directors and movie stars dipping their toes into the small-screen waters. A highlight was “Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuarón’s sexually charged psychological thriller for Apple TV+, which stars Cate Blanchett as a documentary filmmaker whose past comes back to haunt her. The electrifying first four episodes received a rapturous reception on the second day of the festival, earning a five-minute standing ovation.
Cuarón wasn’t the only director to move into serialized entertainment. He was joined by fellow Oscar winner Thomas Vinterberg, who unveiled the climate-change drama “Families Like Us,” his first project since “Another Round.” Meanwhile, Joe Wright brought things closer to home with “M. Son of the Century,” his series of films about Benito Mussolini, the infamous Italian wartime dictator. The move to television has given Cuarón, Vinterberg and Wright more room to realize their epic visions, but it’s also a sign of the freedom and greater funding available there at a time when the film industry is shrinking.
Palestinian Directors Speak Out
In contrast to Cannes or Berlin, which always seem preoccupied with politics, Venice has rarely been a platform for protest or activism. Still, the ongoing devastation in Gaza has created a tense atmosphere. On the first day of the festival, a letter was issued by more than 300 filmmakers, actors, writers and musicians condemning the inclusion of two Israeli films in the Venice programme – “Dogs and Men” and “Why War”. They claimed that the images were the work of companies involved in “whitewashing Israel’s oppression of Palestinians”. The letter’s authors urged the festival not to “program productions” that they said were complicit in human rights abuses. Earlier in the day, another letter – signed by nearly 70 Palestinian filmmakers, including Hany Abu-Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi – offered a broader critique, accusing Hollywood of “humiliating” the Palestinian people for decades, which they said had helped enable the current bloodshed in Gaza.
Restore the excitement
Festivalgoers have been dealing with a brutal heat wave, but those looking to cool off in an air-conditioned theater are out of luck. That’s because this year’s lineup is packed with sexy, sexually charged films that are sending Venice’s temperatures soaring. It’s a thrilling lineup that includes “Baby Girl,” starring Kidman as a high-powered executive who has a torrid affair with an intern (Dickinson), and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” which stars Daniel Craig as a lonely American immigrant in his late 40s who becomes obsessed with a much younger man. In addition to those raucous festivals in May and December, Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” is also a hottie, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the battle the director had with censors when it was released 20 years ago. In the decades since, Hollywood, which had flooded theaters with explicit thrillers like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, has largely stopped making such films. But judging by what’s showing in Venice, we may be in for a major increase in on-screen nudity.
Ready, Start, Spend!
All-night bidding wars are a staple at Sundance and the Toronto Film Festival, but not so much in Venice, which is seen as the go-to venue for lavish premieres of films sold elsewhere. That’s not the case this year, as studios and streaming platforms have been packing their checks. Two of the most popular films in competition, “Maria” and “Queer,” were sold to Netflix and A24, respectively, just as the festival got underway. They’re not the only films that could leave Italy after securing distribution. “The Brutalist,” a sprawling historical epic starring Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, and “Vermiglio,” an Italian drama set against the backdrop of World War II, are also attracting interest from studios.
Angelina hits all the right notes.
It's been years since Jolie has played a role worthy of her talent. But that's about to change with her latest film, “Maria,” in which she plays legendary singer Maria Callas. The film has wowed critics, received critical acclaim, and generated buzz around its leading lady's awards nominations. diverse“She reminds you that she can be a very serious actress with nuance and power,” praised Owen Gleiberman of The Guardian. He’s not alone: other critics have praised her for humanizing the tempestuous singer and showing how Callas’s fame has become a kind of prison. It’s a fate Jolie, hounded by tabloids and paparazzi for decades, is well aware of. But with Maria, the focus has shifted away from Jolie’s fame and back to her art.
