The Venice Film Festival opened on August 27 with a mix of red-carpet dazzle and political tension, as Hollywood stars descended on the Lido while protesters drew attention to the war in Gaza.
The 82nd edition of the world’s oldest film festival has rolled out a heavyweight line-up: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Kathryn Bigelow and Jim Jarmusch are among the headline names, while Francis Ford Coppola inaugurated proceedings by presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to German auteur Werner Herzog.
The 81-year-old director, whose body of work spans more than 70 films including ‘Grizzly Man’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo’, premiered his latest documentary ‘Ghost Elephants’ yesterday.
Clooney, who arrived in Venice with wife Amal to much fanfare, stars in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix comedy ‘Jay Kelly’, where he plays an aging Hollywood icon in the midst of an identity crisis.
That same evening, Yorgos Lanthimos unveils ‘Bugonia’, a sci-fi satire with Emma Stone as a pharmaceutical executive mistaken for an extraterrestrial. Roberts, meanwhile, makes her first Venice appearance on Friday in Luca Guadagnino’s out-of-competition drama ‘After the Hunt’, a story about cancel-culture.
Though Venice has long been a launchpad for Oscar hopefuls, this year’s curtain-raiser was rightfully overshadowed by the war in Gaza. Demonstrators unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner outside the festival’s main venue, while Italian filmmakers issued a statement urging organisers to condemn Israel’s assault on Gaza. A larger protest is scheduled for Saturday, backed by local political and rights groups.
Festival director Alberto Barbera expressed “huge sadness and suffering vis-à-vis what is happening in Gaza and Palestine” but said invitations to Israeli guests would not be withdrawn.
The conflict also echoes on screen: Kaouther Ben Hania’s ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’, about a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza last year, is competing for the festival’s top prize.
The coming days promise a flurry of high-profile premieres. Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget reimagining of ‘Frankenstein’ brings Oscar Isaac into the monster’s shoes; Kathryn Bigelow presents ‘A House of Dynamite’, a political thriller with Idris Elba; and Olivier Assayas casts Jude Law as Vladimir Putin in ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson takes on the role of MMA legend Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s ‘The Smashing Machine’, while Jim Jarmusch returns with ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’, featuring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.
Also making headlines is Shu Qi, the Taiwan-born actress who steps behind the camera for the first time with her directorial debut ‘Nuhai’ (Girl).
With global crises looming large alongside the glitter of premieres, Venice 2025 promises to be as much a stage for politics as for cinema.