Venice Film Festival has announced its 2020 lineup, including new movies from Shia LaBeouf, Vanessa Kirby, Luca Guadagnino, Frances McDormand, Andrew Garfield, and more.
Fewer A-list stars will stumble out of parties along the lagoon to be snapped by paparazzi in boats. But organisers of this year’s Venice film festival are promising plenty of movies — on actual screens in front of actual audiences — for the first time since the worldwide pandemic shut showbiz.
More than 50 countries will participate in what aims to be the first major in-person film festival of the COVID era, from September 2-12, 2020.
“We have saved the heart of the festival,” said festival director Alberto Barbera, who presented the line-up at a livestreamed press conference.
Temperatures will be checked, every second seat in the cinemas will be left empty, and even accredited film critics will have to reserve their seats in advance. The number of films has been reduced, Barbera said, but “not by much”.
The main competition lineup for the Golden Lion award for best film will include 18 titles, compared to 21 last year. Just two are U.S. studio productions: “Nomadland”, a road drama by U.S.-based Chinese director Chloe Zhao starring Frances McDormand, and “The World To Come”, with Casey Affleck.
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They will compete against works by Israel’s Amos Gitai and Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky, and four Italian films, including Gianfranco Rosi’s “Notturno”, about the Syrian conflict.
Titles screening out of competition include “The Duke”, a crime comedy from Notting Hill director Roger Michell starring Helen Mirren, and “Greta”, a documentary portrait of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
“We are not proud to be the first ones. We would have wanted all festivals to take place and this situation not to have happened,” said Roberto Cicutto, chairman of the Biennale foundation which hosts the festival. “But we are pleased with what we have managed to organise.”
The films that will be screened at the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival were announced live by artistic director Alberto Barbera
IN COMPETITION
“In Between Dying,” Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan, U.S.)
“Le Sorelle Macaluso,” Emma Dante (Italy)
“The World to Come,” Mona Fastvold (U.S.)
“Nuevo Orden,” Michel Franco (Mexico, France)
“Lovers,” Nicole Garcia (France)
“Laila in Haifa,” Amos Gitai (Israel, France)
“Dear Comrades,” Andrei Konchalovsky (Russia)
“Wife of a Spy,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan)
“Sun Children,” Majid Majidi (Iran)
“Pieces of a Woman,” Kornel Mundruczo (Canada, Hungary)
“Miss Marx,” Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy, Belgium)
“Padrenostro,” Claudio Noce (Italy)
“Never Gonna Snow Again,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Poland, Germany)
“The Disciple,” Chaitanya Tamhane (India)
“And Tomorrow The Entire World,” Julia Von Heinz (Germany, France)
“Nomadland,” Chloe Zhao (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Fiction
“Lacci,” Daniele Luchetti (Italy) – OPENING FILM
“Lasciami Andare,” Stefano Mordini (Italy) CLOSING FILM
“Mandibules,” Quentin Dupieux (France, Belgium)
“Love After Love,” Ann Hui (China)
“Assandira,” Salvatore Mereu (Italy)
“The Duke,” Roger Mitchell (U.K.)
“Night in Paradise,” Park Soon-Jung (South Corea)
“Mosquito State,” Filip Jan Rymsza (Poland)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Non-Fiction
“Sportin’ Life,” Abel Ferrara (Italy)
“Crazy, Not Insane,” Alex Gibney (U.S.)
“Greta,” Nathan Grossman (Sweeden)
“Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams,” Luca Guadagnino (Italy)
“Final Account,” Luke Holland (U.K.)
“La Verità Su La Dolce Vita,” Giuseppe Pedersoli (Italy)
“Molecole,” Daniele Segre (Italy) PRE-OPENING TITLE
“Narciso Em Ferias,” Renato Terra, Ricardo Calil (Brazil)
“Paolo Conte, Via Con Me,” Giorgio Verdelli (Italy)
“Hopper/Welles,” Orson Welles (U.S.)
“City Hall,” Frederick Wiseman (U.S.)
OUT OF COMPETITION – Special Screenings
“30 Monedas – Episode 1,” Alex De La Iglesia (Spain)
“Princesse Europe,” Camille Lotteau (France)
“Omelia Contadina,” Alice Rohrwacher, Jr (Italy)
HORIZONS
“Apples,” Christos Nikou OPENING FILM
“La Troisieme Guerre,” Giovanni Aloi (France)
“Milestone,” Ivan Ayr (India)
“The Wasteland,” Ahmad Bahrami (Iran)
“The Man Who Sold His Skin,” Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweeden)
“I Predatori,” Pietro Castellitto (Italy)
“Mainstream,” Gia Coppola (U.S.)
“Genus Pan,” Lav Diaz (Philippines)
“Zanka Contact,” Ismael El Iraki (France, Morocco, Belgium)
“Guerra e Pace,” Martina Parenti, Massimo D’Anolfi (Italy, Switzerland)
“La Nuit Des Rois,” Philippe Lacote (Ivory Coast, France, Canada)
“The Furnace,” Roderick Mackay (Australia)
“Careless Crime,” Shahram Mokri (Iran)
“Gaza Mon Amour,” Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser (Palestine, France, Germany, Portugal, Qatar)
“Selva Tragica,” Yulene Olaizola (Mexico, France, Colombia)
“Nowhere Special,” Uberto Pasolini (Italy, Romania, U.K.)
“Listen,” Ana Rocha De Sousa (U.K., Portugal)
“The Best is Yet to Come,” Wang Jing (China)
“Yellow Cat,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan, France)
“Notturno,” Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France, Germany)
“Never Gonna Snow Again,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Poland, Germany)
“And Tomorrow The Entire World,” Julia Von Heinz (Germany, France)
“Quo Vadis, Aida?,” Jasmila Zbanic (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Romania, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Norway.)
“Pieces of a Woman” is a Canadian-Hungarian entry, and the star cast includes, Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Jimmie Fails, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, Iliza Shlesinger, Benny Safdie
Source: Reuters | labiennale.org | Cover Photo: MainstreamCanadian.ca
