VENICE, Italy (AP) — A few of Hollywood’s largest stars are heading to Venice, Italy, for the 82nd version of the Venice Movie Competition, which kicks off on Wednesday.
Right here’s a rundown of every part it is advisable know concerning the pageant, the Oscar buzz and who’s going.
What’s the Venice Worldwide Movie Competition?
It’s some of the prestigious movie festivals on the planet, second solely to Cannes, and technically the oldest. Venice can be a reliably starry affair, gathering among the finest movies in worldwide cinema and infrequently factoring into the Oscars race.
The movie pageant was established in 1932, then a non-competitive occasion, by the La Biennale di Venezia, internet hosting movies like “Grand Hotel” and “It Happened One Night.” By 1935, they determined to make it an annual occasion. Suspicions that the pageant was succumbing to fascist influences truly led to the institution of the Cannes Movie Competition, in its place, after the 1938 version.
The Golden Lion award as we all know it immediately wouldn’t be launched till 1949 (“Rashômon” gained in 1951). Different winners all through historical past embrace “Belle de jour” (1967), “Au revoir les enfants” (1987), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Somewhere” (2010), “Poor Things” (2023) and, final 12 months, “The Room Next Door.”
When is the Venice Movie Competition?
The pageant kicks off on Wednesday and runs via Sept. 6, when the awards might be introduced. The opening evening movie is Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia.”
Who’s going this 12 months?
Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Dwayne Johnson, Adam Sandler and Idris Elba are among the many stars anticipated to grace the crimson carpets this 12 months. It’ll be the primary time on the pageant for each Roberts, starring within the #MeToo-themed drama “After the Hunt,” and Johnson, who reworked for his function as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”
Different stars within the lineup embrace Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Jesse Plemons, Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Invoice Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Amanda Seyfried, Callum Turner and Jude Legislation. Lifetime achievement award recipients this 12 months embrace “Vertigo” star Kim Novak and filmmaker Werner Herzog.
What are the most important and buzziest movies?
After taking a 12 months off, Netflix, nonetheless on the hunt for a finest image win, is again in full drive with three main movies in the primary competitors: Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Kathryn Bigelow’s political thriller “A House of Dynamite,” and Noah Baumbach’s comedic drama “Jay Kelly.” Additionally in competitors are: Kaouther ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab”; Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” with Emma Stone; Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine”; Jim Jarmusch’s anthology movie “Father Mother Sister Brother”; Mona Fastvold’s musical concerning the Shakers, “The Testament of Ann Lee”; Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice”; and Olivier Assayas’s “The Wizard of the Kremlin.”
The excitement is powerful for a number of out-of-competition movies too, like Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante” and Sofia Coppola’s Marc Jacobs documentary “Marc by Sofia.”
How does Venice play into the Oscar race?
Competition director Alberto Barbera thinks Venice’s place within the Oscar race was solidified in 2012, once they hosted the premiere of “Gravity,” which went on to win a number one seven Oscars that March and established Venice as a spot to launch a marketing campaign. It’s solely intensified because the membership of the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences has gotten extra worldwide. Since 2014, they’ve hosted 4 finest image winners (“Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland”).
Final 12 months, the pageant had a number of eventual Oscar-winning movies within the lineup, together with Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” which gained three together with finest actor for Adrien Brody, Walter Salles’ finest worldwide characteristic winner “I’m Still Here,” and the animated brief “In the Shadow of the Cypress.”
What’s the Lido?
When individuals consider Venice, they often consider landmarks just like the Rialto bridge and St. Mark’s Sq.. The pageant truly takes place on a unique island, an almost 7-mile (11-kilometer) barrier island referred to as the Lido, which is a few 20-minute ferry (vaporetto) journey away.
A army outpost within the twelfth century, it reworked right into a seaside resort, a favourite of European aristocrats, by the tip of the nineteenth.
The place do celebrities keep?
On the Lido, the one five-star resort is the Lodge Excelsior, which dates again to 1908 and is the place Quentin Tarantino has stayed. However rooms go shortly, and there are such a lot of luxurious resorts on the completely different islands that provide a bit extra privateness, away from the frenzy of the pageant and photographers.
Maybe probably the most well-known of the bunch is the Belmond Lodge Cipriani, on Giudecca, dwelling of one in every of Clooney’s favourite bars. There’s the Lodge Danieli, which has been featured in movies like “Moonraker” and “Casino Royale,” and usually hosts kickoff events for the pageant. One other favourite is the Gritti Palace, the place everybody from Brad Pitt to Elizabeth Taylor has stayed. There’s additionally a St. Regis and the Aman Venice, the place George and Amal Clooney have been married.
How do individuals get across the pageant?
The scattered resorts are additionally the rationale you see so many celebrities photographed on the Excelsior docks: They arrive to the pageant, together with press conferences and premieres, by non-public water taxi. Generally, they’re transported a really brief distance from the Excelsior to the crimson carpet in automobiles. Not like the primary island of Venice, automobiles are allowed on the Lido, together with buses and personal automobiles. However many festivalgoers choose to hire a motorcycle to get round.
Who decides on the Venice awards?
“Nebraska” filmmaker Alexander Payne is presiding over the primary competitors jury, which incorporates Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian director Maura Delpero, Chinese language actor Zhao Tao and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. The award winners might be introduced on Sept. 6.
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For ongoing protection of the 2025 Venice Movie Competition, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival
