The Italian drama Nonostante by director and actor Valerio Mastandrea and the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics drama September 5 – directed by Tim Fehlbaum and starring Peter Sarsgaard – have been selected as the opening screenings of the Venice Film Festival's flagship Horizons and Horizons Extra sections, respectively.
The documentary “September 5,” shot by Republic Pictures, reconstructs the difficult decisions made by an American sportscasting team that quickly adapted from sports reporting to live coverage of Israeli athletes being held hostage.
“Through this lens, ‘September 5th’ offers a powerful new perspective on the live broadcast that was watched globally by an estimated one billion people at the time,” according to the synopsis for the film.
The film “September 5” is produced by the German companies BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion and Projected Picture Works, in cooperation with Constantin Film and ERF Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion.
Sean Penn is among the producers of “September 5” along with Philippe Trower, Thomas Wopke, Tim Fehlbaum, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, and John Wildermuth.
“Nonnostant” (the film's title translates to “Despite”) is the second film directed by Mastandrea, who also plays a man in a hospital whose peaceful existence is interrupted by the arrival of a disturbed and angry woman in the same ward, a woman full of strong vitality.
The film's producers are Viola Prestieri and Valeria Golino for HT Film; Francesco Tato and Oscar Giolitti for Damocle; Moreno Zani and Malcolm Pagani for Tenderstories with RAI Cinema. BiM Distribuzione is the film's Italian distributor.
“Nonostante” will open the Horizons competition on August 28, while “September 5” will premiere in Horizons Extra on August 29.
Horizons Extra is an extension of Horizons, the Venice section that focuses on new trends in world cinema. While Horizons films are judged by a jury—chaired this year by Debra Granik, director of Winter's Bone—Horizons Extra films are judged by the festival's audience.
The 81st Venice Film Festival is scheduled to take place from August 28 to September 7. The full lineup will be announced on July 23.
