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Florian Zeller’s thriller Bunker, Martin McDonagh’s black comedy Wild Horse Nine and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Loveare among the films set to world premiere on the Lido at the Venice Film Festival, running September 2-12.
Scroll down for full lineup
The selection, which was notably lighter on studio and streamer fare than in previous years and was heavily skewed towards films by male directors, was announced this morning by Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera.
Among the competition films bringing stars to the Lido are British-Irish director McDonagh’s CIA tale Wild Horse Nine, set shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, which is being released through Searchlight Pictures and features John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi. McDonagh previously premiered The Banshees of Inerishin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouriat Venice.
Zeller’s thriller Bunker will also boost the red-carpet glamour with its stars Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger in the tale of an architect’s marriage being tested after he accepts a project to build a bunker for a billionaire. Zeller won the best adapted screenplay Oscar in 2021 for The Father, and was in Venice competition in 2022 for The Son.
Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong’s highly anticipated Possible Love – his first film in eight years since his acclaimed Burning –also plays in competition. A Netflix production, it follows the intertwined lives of two married couples. The cast includes Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong.
Among the Asian contingent in competition, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda is in with his live-action adaptation of bestselling manga Look Back, a coming-of-age story about two girls pursuing their dreams of becoming manga artists.
Also selected is Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, starring Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush and Tatyana Ali, based on the experiences of an African American veteran of the Vietnam War.
The line-up also includes veteran German director Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard starring real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara, based on the true story of inseparable twin sisters. Herzog returns to Venice after receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award last year.
The only film by a female director in the 20-strong competition line-up is Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy’s drama Woman Unknown. Last year, six of the festival’s 21 competition films were directed by women.
Italian titles
Among the five strong Italian contingent in competition is legendary Italian director Nanni Moretti’s long-awaited return to Venice, the romantic comedy It Will Happen Tonight,starringLouis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. Edoardo De Angelis – whose Commandante opened the festival in 2023 – returns with Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro, while Andrea Pallaoro’s love story The Echo Chamber stars Alicia Vikander, Lucmorea Marinelli and Susan Sarandon.
Barbera flagged that there are a lot of long films in his selection, with the longest competition title being Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s 210-minute Dau, the latest in his monumentalDau series. Khrzhanovsky renounced his Russian citizenship in 2024.
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck comes with his third feature as a director Company, a genre story starring Nick Nolte.
Iranian director Ali Asgari comes to Venice for the third time with A Bit Of Light,about opponents of the Iranian regime waiting for change that never comes.
French director Stephane Brize also returns to Venice with A Good Little Soldier starring Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon. Fellow French director Cedric Kahn is also in competition with A Place To Heal, set in an adolescent psychiatry unit in a French public hospital.
Non-fiction epics
Barbera also unveiled a huge and very male-skewed out of competition non-fiction section, that included documentaries such as Russell Crowe’s music biopic What Love Builds, Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk doc Musk,Sergei Loznitza’s Imperium,Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’smusic docOasis: Don’t Look Back in Angerand Takashi Miike’sShumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki,as well asFree Solodirector’s Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’sEverest: The Other Sideand Wim Wenders’sFrom Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor.
The non-fiction line-up also included two docs focused on the Israel-Gaza war,Amos Gitai’sThe Road to Jericho andAhmed Hassouna’sCitizen Osama.
Out of competition,the fiction line-up includesPaul Schrader’s The Basics Of Philosophywith Jack Huston, Bill Pullman and Sofia Boutella centring on a repressed philosophy professor; and Place to Beby Hungarian-born Kornel Mundruczo that stars Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson.
The Venice Horizons section opens with 1930s-set Italian movie La Ragazza Con La Leica by Alina Marazzi, one of four Italian movies in the section.
As previously announced, Danny Boyle’s Ink, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, will open Venice and will screen in competition. Netflix has US and Latin American rights.
Maggie Gyllenhaal leads the competition jury, which also includes Kaouther Ben Hania and Daniel Blumberg. Gyllenhaal will also present her short film Flesh Impact out of competition with Ellen Berstyyn, Dakota Johnson and Stellan Starsgaard among the cast.
The Giornate degli Autori and Critics’ Week titles were announced earlier this week.
More to follow.
Competition
A Bit Of Light
Dir. Ali Asgari
Ritorno A Buenos Aires
Dir. Marco Bechis
Un Bon Petit Soldat
Dir. Stephane Brize
Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro
Dir. Edoardo De Angelis
Woman Unknown
Dir. May el-Toukhy
Bucking Fastard
Dir. Werner Herzog
15/18 (A Place To Heal)
Dir. Cedric Kahn
Look Back
Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda
Possible Love
Dir. Lee Chang-dong
Wild Horse Nine
Dir. Martin McDonagh
Succedera Questa Notte
Dir. Nanni Moretti
Primetime
Dir. Lance Oppenheim
The Echo Chamber
Dir. Andrea Pallaoro
Un Peu Avant Minuit
Dir. Nicolas Pariser
L’Estranea
Dir. Paolo Strippoli
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?
Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
Venice Open – fiction
Dio Ride
Dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Nessun Dolore
Dir. Gianni Amelio
Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors
Dir. Lav Diaz
Father Joe
Dir. Barthelemy Grossmann
Place To Be
Dir. Kornel Mundruczo
No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman
Dir. Halkawt Mustafa
The Basics Of Philosophy
Dir. Paul Schrader
Un Bon Avocat
Dir. Tristan Seguela
Venice Open – non-fiction
Be Brave
Dir. Francesco Carrozzini
What Love Builds
Dir. Russell Crowe
Burgundy
Dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
The Road To Jericho
Dir. Amos Gitai
Citizen Osama
Dir. Ahmed Hassouna
Union Town
Dir. Barbara Kopple
Holy Wood Dust
Dir. Victor Kossakovsky
Letters From The Silenced Country
Dir. Andrei Kutsila
Biografia De Jorge Luis Borges
Dir. Mariano Llinas
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile
Dir. Julia Loktev
Boatbuilders
Dir. Luke Lorentzen
Shumei – The Living Legacy Of Kabuki
Dir. Takashi Miike
Queer Edward II
Dir. Theo Rollason
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger
Dir. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
Everest: The Other Side
Dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
From Inside Out – The Architecture Of Peter Zumthor
Dir. Wim Wenders
Venice Open – film on films
Juso Per Ferie
Dir. Karen Di Porto
Nino – Un Film Su Nino Rota
Dir. Walter Fasano
The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias
Dir. Sophie Fiennes
Joie De Vivre
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Twist And Shoot Mister Suzuki
Dir. Yves Montmayeur
Venice Open – shorts
Flesh Impact
Dir. Maggie Gylenhaal
Wild Asparagus
Dir. Avi Mograbi
They’re Here
Dir. Laura Poitras, Rachel Mueller
Venice Open – series
Venice Open – special screening
Dai Nostra in2
Dir. Guiseppe Giannotti, Enrico Salvatori, Nicoletta Berardi
Horizons
La Ragazza Con Le Leica
Dir. Alina Marazzi
The Burning Giants
Dir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
What Belongs To Others
Dir. Grzegorz Debowski
Una Storia
Dir. Anna Foglietta
La Citta Dei Vivi
Dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini
Falling House
Dir. Mohsen Gharaei
Too Much Sugar
Dir. Robert Greene
The Difficult Bride
Dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
La Maison Du Vent
Dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
I Figli Della Scimmia
Dir. Tommaso Landucci
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra
Dir. Jacqueline Lentzou
Until The Day Ends
Dir. Jelena Maksimovic
Lovers In The Blue Night
Dir. Anuparna Roy
Un Detour Par Diane
Dir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
The Colour Of The Sun
Dir. Xavier Tera
Big Little Things
Dir. Michelle Zhou
Spotlight
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing
Dir. Erik Shirai
Conversation With The Sea
Dir. Muayad Alayan
Hombre Al Agua
Dir. Gael Garcia Bernal
Serpenti
Dir. Roberto De Paolis Maino
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